Helpless
by Im.a.stitchpunk
Summary: Nothing seems to go right for Avis and anyone she comes in contact with. Follow her as she tries to survive the world with the help of a few friends. OCx? multiple OCs
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. My two friends also have OCs in the story, you will meet them later, and they own them. Don't use our OCs without our you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.I also want to make everyone aware of the fact this story is rather depressing but by no means do I plan to have any of the OCs come off as Mary-Sue. And yes, there will be OCxCannon in the story.

.-.

Agony takes over as I blindly move forward. My only thought was finding some place safe to rest. Red started taking over the corners of my vision but I pressed forward, I cough and nearly drop dead right there. Somewhere through the redness I saw a figure. "Help." I croak before collapsing into the cold ground. Warm hands wrap around me and I'm pulled upwards. My mind drifts, I'm vaguely aware that I'm being carried before something soft envelopes me and I stop worrying.

When I come to I'm in a dark room. There's a dull throb throughout my body but nothing compared to the agony from before. Where am I? What happened? A door creaks open and a tall man stands there, his hands tucked into his pockets. Fear runs up my spine and I attempt to sit up only to have a sharp pain stab in my side. I hiss and fall back into the bed.

"Careful, kid, you've been injured pretty bad." The man shuffles forward and drops into a chair beside the bed I was lying in. "The name's Greed."

"A-Avis." I murmur looking him over; his purple eyes unnerved me so I avoid looking at his eyes. He has an angular face, strong features, spiky black hair, and those purple eyes.

Greed peers down at me for a long while, I try to remain as still as possible. Our silence is broken when I start to cough and wheeze for breath. He lets me cough until the fit subsides, my side aches and I want to know what happened but I don't dare move. We fall silent again, Greed relaxes back in his seat and peers down at me.

"You don't talk much do you? Not that I mind. I'm just curious as to what the hell happened." Greed leans forward again and waves his left hand around, I notice a red tattoo on it; a snake eating its tail.

"I…" I try and sit up only to have a hot, searing pain force me back in bed. My insides twists and I squeeze my eyes shut. "I don't remember."

"Really now?" Greed's voice jumps a few octaves.

"Yea." I nod slowly, "W-what happened?"

"You said yourself you didn't know." Greed smirks. "If you're asking how injured you were… you were probably going to die if you hadn't found me. Guess you had some real bad scars across your whole body, you had to get stitches," Greed points to my stomach, "you're lucky to be alive… and in one piece."

My eyes find a crack in the ceiling and I stare at it. As hard as I try I can't remember what happened. I move and something snaps. Hot liquid pools on my stomach and agony fills my body. A shriek echoed through the room and just as I blacked out I realized it was my own scream.

.-.

When I open my eyes I find myself in a strange room, crimson colored sheets, a cracked white ceiling, and not a soul in sight. I don't know where I am or what I'm doing. When I sit up pain erupts through my stomach, I cling to it before I lift up a white shirt I never knew I owned. There on my stomach are three slices across my stomach, the one in the middle is really bad. Black thread holes the pink skin together and I notice a blood dripping out of the middle scar. I don't know what else to do so I scream.

Screaming itself makes my body ache, my lungs burn, my arms ache, and my stomach shrieks. I fall back into the bed, tears streaming down my cheeks. Where am I? What happened to me?

"Kid?" A door is flung open and I shoot straight up only to have severe pain in my stomach causing another loud scream to escape my lips. "What the hell! You'll reopen your wounds! Lay down now!" That voice, that husky, smooth voice. I fall back into the bed, panting for breath as a man steps into view. "Man you're a pain in the ass."

"G-g…." The name balances on the tip of my tongue but I start to cough and wheeze for breath, my shoulders ache and my lungs burn again. "Greed." I gasp.

"So you do remember me." Greed smirks. "You've woken up twice and each time it's the same thing." He drops into the chair beside the bed and stretches out. "You realize your injured, start screaming, I run in, you scream again and bam you pass back out."

"Wh-…" Words won't form. My stomach aches and I close my eyes tightly.

"In pain?" Greed asks, "We don't have any pain medication at the moment… hold on, don't pass out on me ok kid?" I nod my head and he pushes himself from his seat and leaves the room. I close my eyes and focus on my breathing, there's pain everywhere and it pulls me towards darkness. No, he told me to stay awake, Greed told me to stay awake. The door opens and I crack my eyes open. He holds a glass of amber liquid. "Alright, let's sit you up." He says.

To say the action hurt like hell was an understatement, there was no way for Greed to sit me up without my stomach hurting so bad blackness took over the corners of my vision. Still he sat me up. "Here." He held out the glass, when my hands shake he holds them and brings the cup to my lips. The liquid made my nose wrinkle with how bad is smelled. "Don't think. Drink it all." He presses the cup to my lips and starts to tilt it. When the liquid touches my tongue I gag and pull away quickly. Whatever it is, it tastes absolutely awful. "Careful, kid, this stuff's expensive." Greed puts the glass back to my lips, I try to turn away but his other hand catches my chin and holds me still. "Drink it." He stares into my eyes, his purple eyes are scary and I open my mouth. "Good girl." Greed tilts the glass forward quickly and forces my mouth closed the second the liquid hits my tongue. I gag again and try to spit the liquid out. Greed pinches my nose and I'm forced to swallow. The liquid burns the whole way down my throat and when Greed finally releases me I pant for breath.

"Ah." I whine but then the ache of my wounds was replaced by a burning warmth in my tummy. Greed smirks and drops back into his chair.

"Good girl."

My eyes close and I let the darkness come over me, only the warmth in my tummy to keep me company. My dreams are a swirl of shapes and colors, brown rectangles, silver circles, white circles, red triangles. Slowly the red and white take over and swirl around each other and I get dizzy from watching them.

I wake up with my stomach curling and my head throbbing. The crimson sheets that wind between my legs seem familiar. The cracks in the ceiling appear like they've always belonged there. A name dances on the tip of my tongue until I pull it free. "Greed." I croak. The name reverberates around the room. "Greed." I murmur louder, my throat scratches and I start to cough and choke. Something sticks in the back of my throat making me heave and choke.

"I'm gone for a minute and you start dying on me." The dark haired male my mind calls Greed leans over me. The fit passes and he helps me sit up. "Can you drink on your own this time?" I eye him for a moment. "It's water I promise." He presses a glass into my hand and sits back into his chair while I take a long drink. "So, kid, do you remember anything?"

"Red." I croak.

"Red?" When I nod Greed laughs, "Man, you _are_ something else kid. You don't remember shit!" He drops his head into his hand and groans loudly, "What the hell am I supposed to do with a girl like you?" I just stare back unsure of how to respond. "Don't worry kid, I won't kick you out, I'm not that type of guy. It's just irritating, you're living in my bed and I am rather fond of it. It's almost like your stealing my possession."

I frown. I'm not trying to steal anything…. I was hurt and needed help. Why was I injured in the first place? "H-… how long?"

"How long what?" Greed smirks mischievously. I pat the bed since words won't form in my mouth. Greed's smirk spreads wider across his face. "You've been in my bed for six days doll-face."

We stare at each other for a moment before I take another sip of the water. Greed leans forward and takes the glass from my hand before his hands slide to my waist. "This might hurt, but I want to see if you can stand. Martel said you should be able to by now." His nails dig into my hips as he slides me closer to the edge of the bed with ease. I knew he was strong, from the shapes of his arms and the contours of his chest through his tight shirt, but I had no idea _how_ strong. "Ready?" Greed asks as my feet hover above the ground. I nod and he helps me slide off the bed and onto my feet. While he supports most of my weight my stomach doesn't like the change in position, though it's more comfortable than sitting up. "I'm going to let you go doll." His hands leave my waist and my legs wobble as they support my full weight, but I don't fall over.

The door opens and a short man with spiky brown hair stands in the doorway. His presence frightens me, he has a long sword dangling off his hip. I step back, my foot twists and I collapse into Greed who gropes my arms trying to catch me.

"Sorry." The man offers me a quick apology before turning to Greed. "Sir, there's someone here to see you…. Someone," the man's eyes dart to me, "_special_."

Curious I look up to Greed who just sets me on the bed. "Watch her Dolcetto, don't let her sleep alright?" And just like that Greed left me with the strange man.

We stare at each other for a long time in utter silence. The man, Dolcetto, sighs deeply. "I hate babysitting." "S-sorry." I squeak.

"Don't remember me do ya? You woke up, what, two days ago?"

I stare back at him, I don't remember much from the past six days. Instead of answering I try and wiggle my way back into the bed, my stomach pulls and I hiss.

"Be careful, Greed'll kill me if you get even more injured than you already are. You got some nifty wounds on you kiddo, they look like sword cuts but they're all perfectly spaced apart."

Dolcetto doesn't say much after that, we just sit and watch each other. It's awkward, but I have the feeling if I needed something he'd get it, just from the way his eyes would follow what I looked at. If I looked at the glass of water his would dart to the glass and back to me, if I glanced down at my stomach he'd look to my stomach and back to me. Like a dog.

.-.

Another two days and Greed allows me to walk around his place, the Devil's Nest. Often I find myself lost, in severe pain, and screaming. Usually it's Dolcetto, Greed, or a blond woman named Martel who find me and drag me back to Greed's room. I wake up on what I assume is my ninth day and feel different. I look down at my white shirt, stained with the blood of my wound, and pull it up. My stomach, the wounds, the stitches… they're gone. I touch the puckered skin lightly, while it hurts it's a vast improvement from the pain I felt when I first arrived.

"This doesn't mean you can be reckless." Greed states as he saunters into the room. I tug my shirt down quickly, suddenly self conscious of myself. Greed grunts and helps me off the bed. "Let's get you changed and then we can go outside… would you like that kiddo?"

I nod my head, I want to feel the air on my skin, not the dampness, muskiness of the Devil's Nest. Would it be windy outside? Or cold? Or maybe sunny?

Greed leaves me alone in a bathroom and lets me clean myself up. I take a shower, careful of the wounds, and clean my hair. As I run a brush through my hair in front of a foggy mirror I remember something; someone used to run their fingers through my hair all the time lulling me to sleep. More than once the brush gets stuck in the knots in my hair, when was the last time I brushed my hair? Hair brushed, teeth cleaned, and dressed in grey jeans and a blue tank top I leave the bathroom. Greed smiles at me, approving my look.

His arm drapes around my shoulder like I see him do with the women that visit him often. Warm air brushes against my skin the second we leave the Devil's Nest. I smile and look up to the sky, the sky was aqua colored with large puffy clouds. Greed and I walk for a little while, the breeze pushes my hair into my face and I push it away.

"You're hair is long." Greed states as we head back to the Devil's Nest. His fingers dig into my scalp and slide through my hair. The sensation makes my body tingle, Greed does it again, strokes my hair, and I have to close my eyes for a moment. The ground moves under my feet and I'm falling forward. "What a pain in the ass you are." Greed grunts as he grabs my arm and hoists me to my feet. "Can I have my bed back any time soon?"

"It's your bed." I murmur, he doesn't need to let me have his bed, though it is so comfortable. Greed sighs and puts his arm around my shoulders. "T-thank you… for taking me in and… and saving me."

"I may be a greedy bastard but I can't see a weak thing like you die in front of my eyes. You'll have to stick around and do some work to pay me back." I nod my head, I don't want to just be given things, someone told me you should live your life living off others.

.-.

Things improved after my short walk outside with Greed. The scars on my stomach healed slowly, but in the mean time I would wander the Devil's Nest and occasionally outside. More than once I cooked, how I learned to cook I don't know, it just came to me, a splash of salt, hint of pepper, a cup of flour. Greed stopped babying me and spent more and more of his time relaxing on a large couch with two women under his arms. Whenever I passed he wouldn't even glance at me, yet at night he'd shuffle into his room alone and run his fingers through my hair until I fell asleep.

Warmth cradled me when I woke up, I burrowed myself deeper into the warmth. A grunt sounds through the room and I feel my hair move back and forth. Suddenly I don't feel safe and I snap up to find Greed collapsed next to me with his eyes closed. Panic races through me and I shove him hard off the bed. Nobody's supposed to share a bed with me. Greed grabs his head and rolls onto his side. "What the hell?" He shouts before he looks up at me and glares. "Most women don't _push_ me _out_ of bed in the morning sweetheart, you should learn that quick if you're staying here."

"You can't sleep here." I point to the vacant spot where Greed was. The spiky haired man pushes the sheets off his ankles and stands up, I was relieved to find he was fully clothes.

"This is my bed sweetheat, I can sleep in it if I want to." Greed leans across the bed to get right into my face. "Got it?"

"No." I shake my head. "Not if I'm here."

"Why not?"

I think, why was it wrong for him to sleep in the same bed as I was? Something inside me said no. Someone told me it was wrong. Who? My father? But how am I supposed to know? I don't remember him very well, blurred memories that haunt my dreams each night.

"Exactly kiddo." Greed pats the top of my head roughly before he stands. Just when he reaches the door he turns back to look at me and sighs. "Come with me." I stand, I always follow Greed's orders, everyone else does so he has to be someone to trust. But not someone to share a bed with. Once out into the bar-lounge area of the Devil's Nest Greed forces me to kneel on the ground before his chair, back to him. I wait, my hands clench on my legs, over the past few weeks I believe Greed has become more and more touchy with me, his hands linger longer when he leads me places, his glazes turn more animalistic, and they unnerve me but intrigue me at the same time. I've grown to love and hate being around Greed, Martel's told me all the details about what Greed does with those ladies that visit a lot.

"Relax." Greed breaths huskily into my ear before I could feel a hairbrush in my hair. "Why are you so tense now doll face?"

"No reason." I murmur, not wanting to tell him how strange I felt. The more the brush pulled through my hair, parting my sleepy hair, the more I relaxed. Greed's hands slowly sifted through my hair as I closed my eyes.

"You like this don't you?" Greed asks softly. I nod slowly. "You should get your hair cut. It's long."

"Then cut it." I say without thinking.

Seconds later there was a loud _shink_ sound and my head felt lighter. My hands instantly flew to my hair finding the ends cut perfectly straight to end at the curve of my shoulder blade. Panic went through me and a memory flashes in front of my eyes. A man's voice saying sweet things as he brushed my hair, "You have lovely hair… never cut your hair… it's beautiful…" Tears prick my eyes to find my hair no longer curled to the dip in my back and instead stopped short.

"Why are you crying? It's hair for Christ's sake." Greed growls as he drops the brush down next to me. "You told me I could cut your hair so stop your crying. I hate it when women cry." The last part sounded like he just said it aloud instead of at me. I wipe at my eyes trying not to cry. We sit there, I sniffle loudly, someone clinks a glass behind us, but it's still incredibly quiet. The silence just makes me want to cry more, I dip my head forward and my hair slides off my shoulders, making the cut obvious again. I choke down a sob and listen to Greed sigh. "Sorry for snappin' kid. Now… go." His hands press against my shoulders, "Go, do something ok?"

Without knowing what else to do I stood and left the Devil's Nest. The boots Martel lent me clunk against the dirt as I walk, since I've been able to walk on my own everyone's avoided me except Greed. Martel, whenever she sees me slides off into another hallway as quickly as possible, Dolcetto just drops his gaze to the ground and walks by. So, most of the time I end up walking the back alleys in Dublith. I watch my boots get covered in dust as I shuffle to and fro with no sense of direction. For some reason I never seem to get lost, no matter how hard I try I remember my way back. My fingers wrap around my hair, I stare at the shortened ends and frown, my hair was pretty; brown and wavy. Now it's so-

A loud boom pulls me from my thoughts. My head snaps forward to find a small house with a black cloud billowing out of it like the steam from the shower. Without a thought my feet surge forward, bringing me closer and closer to the house, someone screams and before I'm a hundred yards in front of the house a hand snaps around my arm.

"What are you doing dumbass?" Greed hisses and starts to pull me from the building as people run forward to watch the building catch fire.

"No!" I shriek, "There's someone in there!" "They're dead." Greed yells at me, his purple eyes dig deep into mine as I glare back. Suddenly I rip my arm free and bolt towards the house. "Get back here!" Greed starts after me. People scream at me to stop but I don't listen as I kick the door until it cracks open. My black clothed man appears beside me and I figure he'll throw me over his shoulder but instead he pushes the door wide enough for us to enter.

There's smoke everywhere and the heart makes my skin sweat. I drop to my knees where it's easier to breath. Smoke rises. "H-he-…" A strangled sound comes from my left. I turn instinctively and the house creaks loudly.

"Hurry up, kid." Greed grabs the back of my neck and pulls me forward as we search through the black smoke for whoever. My senses told me to run as the smoke burn my eyes and I cough loudly feeling the heat inside my lungs. Something in my heart told me to keep moving forward. I reach my hand out and come down on something round and soft, there's a gasp and I yank hard on whatever I grabbed. A body! I grabbed a leg.

"Greed!" I yell as loudly as I could, my lungs scream at me to stop breathing deeply, things turn fuzzy and I feel a hand on my back. Greed pulls me backwards and I drag the person with me. They kick and thrash but the motions stall. "Stay awake!" I cough out.

"Stop talking idiot." Greed snaps as he yanks me to my feet and grabs the person. They fall limp and Greed puts the person over their shoulder. "Move!" Greed snaps at me, shoving me forward. I stumble towards the door, a soft breeze told me where to go, fresh air fills my lungs and sunlight burns my teary eyes. My knees buckle and I drop the ground, an onlooker drags me away from the house as it gives out a loud groan and wood snaps. A window bursts and fire laps out the window. Greed dumps the person down next to me on the hard ground and I peer through my tears at a soot covered face before the smoke forces my eyes to close.

.-.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. My two friends also have OCs in the story, you will meet them later, and they own them. Don't use our OCs without our you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

Soapy water coats my fingers as I wash a glass mindlessly. Back and forth, I scrub a cloth against the surface. My eyes dart up every time I hear a footstep or a creak, Dolcetto saunters in and leans against the counter before me.

"Is she ok?" I murmur softly before setting the glass aside to dry.

"She's inhaled a lot of smoke, but she's uninjured." Dolcetto watches my hands dive under the water to fish for another dirty glass to clean. "She'll be fine after some rest. How are you doing?"

I shrug, my lungs still burn and my eyes hurt, especially if I look at a bright light, but nothing I can't deal with. "Did everyone else….?" I leave my question hanging in the air.

"Yea, the house collapsed shortly after you got out. You know Greed's pissed at you, he's going to give you quite the lecture whenever he can find the time." So he's with the new girl, does that mean he'll forget me? My heart clenches at the idea. My fingers slip around a glass and it drops to the floor where it cracks loudly. I stare down at it for a while.

"Pick up the glass kid." A husky voice sounds through the room and my head snaps up. Greed looks tired and instantly I drop to my knees and pick up the pieces of glass that broke. "Dolcetto, take care of it would ya?" Greed states as he slumps on the counter. I hand the glass over and the short man left. I watch Greed curiously.

"A-are you ok?" I push.

"Get me a drink would ya?" Greed points and I follow his finger to an bottle with an amber colored liquid inside. Taking a clean glass I pour a little into the bottom, every glass I've ever seen with the amber colored liquid was only barely filled. The man doesn't look up when I press the glass into his hand. He takes a long drink and holds it back out. I pour more into it and watch him down it again. He holds his glass out and I don't fill it. His purple eyes glare at me.

"Why?"

"I need to get drunk sweetheart." Greed deadpans.

"Why?"

"Don't pull that shit on me kid." Greed grabs his head and glances at me and I shut up. I pour another drink and he downs it and holds it back out, as much as I didn't want to, I pour another drink. Instead of downing it, he holds it out to me. "Take a drink."

"Drinking is bad for you." I tell him.

He snorts, "Drinking is the least of the world's problems, kid." And just like that he drinks down the drink. I slap the cloth I'd been using to wash the glasses into the wet water and rub my hands on my pants. "Where you going kid?"

"To see her." The girl has been here for almost a full day and I have yet to see her. I push open the door to Greed's room and find the girl attempting to sit up on her bed. "You should lay down." I say softly. She looks up at me, her bright green eyes shock me. "I'm Avis."

"Leigh." Her voice cracks like mine did when we first got home, all the smoke isn't healthy.

"Strange name." I tell her as I settle into the chair Greed always sat in when I was sick. "Not that Avis isn't a weird name…"

Leigh just sits there and watches me. Her hair is so short and choppy. How can she stand it? My fingers twist through my hair as we stare at each other. "Are… my-"

"Yea." I nod my head, her eyes start to get shiny and I think she's going to cry. She must remember her parents. "Don't worry." I say quickly. "Greed's good. He'll take care of us! And Dolcetto is nice! And… and Martel, she's all '_hiss I'm mean'_ but really she's nice!" Tears drip down her cheeks and I feel I've failed her. "At least you remember your parents." I mutter before pulling my legs to my chest. All I get is snapshots of memories or weird colors and shapes.

"I… I'm sorry." She croaks out.

"It's ok…. I have Greed. And you too." I pause. "And you have me."

Leigh looks at me strangely with huge eyes. "Wh-why didn't… military?… save?" Her voice wheezes out and I can only hear a little bit of what she said.

My mind pieces together what she said before I respond. "I don't know… I blacked out… Greed brought us home… Greed doesn't like military very much."

"B-but…"

"We'll be safe here. I promise." Leigh looks at me and I look back. Suddenly I feel something inside me, my heart pounds and I feel safe like I've never felt before. When I smile Leigh instantly mirrors it and I know we're going to stick by each other.

.-.

"You can't catch me!" I taunt over my shoulder as I race down a hallway.

"No fair!" Leigh shouts after me. "You know the halls and I don't!" "Not my fault!" I tease. When I turn the next corner I come in contact with something solid. Martel glares down at me and I mutter a quick apology before racing around her.

"Stop running!" Greed yells, "Stop yelling!"

I stop in a second, Leigh collides into my back and we topple to the ground at Greed's feet. He glares down at us before heading back to his couch where his ladies give us disapproving looks. I glare back at them and they turn up their noses.

"I don't like those ladies." I mutter to Leigh as we untangle ourselves.

"Me either. They give me weird looks." We glance to the ladies under Greed's arm. They both have long hair, one blond and one brunette, with big boobs and skimpy clothes. I don't even know if it's the same two ladies that come because it's hard to tell past the heavy makeup. Leigh and I pout, Greed acts like we're just a pain in his ass whenever they're around, maybe we are pain in the asses.

I loop my arm through Leigh's and take her off to the kitchen, my stomach was getting hungry and I figured we should get some food. A quick meal later and we were out in the bar talking to Dolcetto who was constantly showing off his sword to us.

"See how sharp it is?" He explains as he slices the tip of his finger open. A tiny bead of blood wells and Leigh makes a disgusted sound. "It's nothing." He sticks his finger into his mouth and smirks at us.

"Do you ever kill people with that sword?" I ask.

"Lots." Dolcetto carefully places the blade into my hands, I look it over, it's shiny, no trace of blood anywhere. "I clean it a lot." He seems to answer my unasked question. Curious, I slide my finger across the blade then inspect the pad, sure enough blood wells and drips down my finger. "Damn it kid, you have to be careful." Leigh gives me a look when I stick my finger into my mouth, if Dolcetto can do it so can I.

"What are they doing _now_ Dolcetto?" Greed complains.

"Being idiots." His fist comes down on the top of my head with a _thump_. "Run along, find something else to do." "But there's never anything to do." Leigh whines and when the two ladies under Greed's arms tee-hee we storm off. I curl up into Greed's bed and stare down at a book I found the other day. Inside was a lot of various circles that caught my attention. "What's that?" Leigh asks as she curls into the bed beside me.

"This book I found."

"Hey, I know that! It's alchemy! My Daddy taught me some." She says before she picks up a pencil and draws a circle into the nightstand beside us. When her fingers touch the circle there's a shock of blue electricity and a small dent formed in the nightstand with a tiny cow statue sitting in the center.

"Oh, that's amazing!" I reach forward to touch the cow but the door flies open and Greed and his two women saunter in. Everyone freezes and we stare at each other.

"Get out." Greed says as he drops his arms from his ladies. Nobody moved. Was he talking to us? Or them? "Now." Greed turns to the ladies and they glare but stalk out of the room nonetheless. "You're making my sex life pretty complicated girls." He sighs as he drops into his chair.

"Sorry?" I ask.

"Come here." Greed holds out his hands and I rush to his lap, Leigh takes more time before she sits on his other leg. His hand settles on my hip and I lean against him silently boasting _I_ was with him and not those ladies. When Greed doesn't speak Leigh removes herself from his lap.

"Do you hate us or what?" She asks boldly.

Greed sighs and puts his arms around me. "I can't decide… but I know this," his purple eyes glare up at Leigh, "you've become my possessions and I refuse to let anything bad happen to my possessions." Nails dig into my hip and I wince at the pain. "While you are annoying I won't kick you out if that's what your asking."

Leigh looks from me to Greed and back again. I'm not sure I understand who he is exactly but he's the closest person I've ever had in my life and I'm not about to let him go just because he ignores me sometimes. "I hate those ladies." Leigh murmurs as she settles onto the edge of the bed.

"Me too." I say.

"Why?"

"They give us looks." I say while I stare at Leigh who nods. "Like we're just nuisances, not worthy to be in your presence…"

"Yea." Leigh nods again and Greed sighs.

"Sorry girls but they'll be around for a while." "But why?"

Greed smiles, "You wouldn't understand doll, you're both too young." Leigh and I exchange looks. Greed gives my hip a squeeze. "Doll, you've been here some time, do you remember anything about that day?" His hand slides to my stomach where the wound has practically healed.

"No. Just shapes and colors… lots of red."

Greed grunts. "I've had people search around for any records of a girl named Avis living in town. We got nothing. There's not even a record of your birth. So, technically, you don't exist." My heart stops. But I do exist, I'm here, right now, breathing the same air as Greed and Leigh. "Curious hmm?" His lips pull back to reveal his teeth in an almost animalistic way. "I bet you the military has something to do with this."

"T-the military?" I murmur.

"The military wouldn't do something like that." Leigh speaks up. "They protect people. Why would they destroy any evidence of Avis?"

"She was clearly supposed to die but didn't." Greed smiles down at me. "You're quite the mystery doll face."

.-.

Greed's hand clenches around mine. When I peer up at him my eyes widen at his expression, dead serious with determination in his eyes. Suddenly Greed kneels before me, his hand digs into my hair and he pulls me into a hug. "Avis, I need you to go get Leigh and run ok?" He says gently in my ear. "Don't _ever_ come back and don't _ever_ mention me again. Got it?" He pulls away and shows me how serious he is. I nod slowly and he runs his fingers through my hair for a moment.

"What's going on?" I ask feeling dread rise inside my stomach.

"Sorry kid, I can't tell you." Not long ago Greed sent everyone out on some mission and I know that has something to do with why he's sending us away.

"Will you come and find us?"

Greed stops to think. "Go to that abandoned building we always walked by… if I'm not there by tomorrow morning you're on your own."

"But… what will we do?"

"You'll figure something out. Now go get Leigh and run." Despite the terror inside my stomach I stay still. "Now kid."

"Greed…" I put my arms around his shoulders.

"God, let me go." He complains pushing on my sides. "Avis, I need you to be strong and keep that head of yours steady ok? You and Leigh will be fine, alright Avis… kid?" I nod and he pats my head. "Good. See ya later kid." That's a promise.

Leigh is in Greed's room when I enter. We stare at each other for a moment, "Grab everything we can use later." I tell her. She nods and together we scrounge the first few rooms we can gathering anything of use and stuffing it into a backpack. I grab that alchemy book and Leigh's hand and run out the backdoor. Leigh doesn't question me as we act normal, walking through the backstreets. When we get to the building Greed and I always walked by, I push the door open and we slide inside.

"What's going on?" Leigh finally asks as we head through the back rooms. I want another exit from the building.

"Greed told us to wait here tonight… if he's not here in the morning then we're on our own." Leigh stiffens beside me. "Don't worry." I try to give her a smile. "We'll be fine."

"How do you know?" She whispers, as if someone will overhear my master plan. "I'm not sure, but Greed wouldn't send us away on our own if he didn't think we'd be fine."

"You'd follow that man to hell and back." She grunts.

"I would. He hasn't let me down yet. We can trust him." I nod my head. "Nothing is impossible." Leigh smiles, whenever Leigh and I complained something was too hard Greed told us that nothing is impossible and pushed us to do better. Finally I settle on a room for us to stay in, the window is big and opens to an alley, and we're equidistance from both the front and rear exit. I explain my reasoning to Leigh as we settle into the ground.

"How do you know this?" She asks.

I shrug. It just came to me. Leigh takes out the crimson colored sheet from Greed's bed and drapes it over our legs as we sit in the corner together. When she drifted away I took out a knife I found in Dolcetto's room and slice off a bit of the sheet for safekeeping. One of my first memories is of this crimson sheet. I close my eyes but try to keep myself alert, things inside me urge me to stay awake, to find a safe place, to stay quiet, who am I to ignore it? Still the deep, mellow breathing beside me eventually lulls me into sleep.

I wake up to sirens and a lot of voices. Leigh's nails dig into my palm and we rush to the window to listen. The building isn't far from the Devil's Nest and I fear that's where the commotion is coming from. Greed hasn't shown up and the sky is bright.

"We gotta move." I say quickly. Leigh stuffs the sheet into the backpack and we hop from the window. When we exit the alleyway I see a sea of blue, military men, I grope for Leigh's hand as they head towards the Devil's Nest. As much as I want to go closer and see if Greed's around Leigh keeps me walking. We pass by a tall man with long swords dangling off his hips, he looks at us.

"He has an eye patch… he must be Fürer Bradley!" Leigh whispers quickly into my ear. Bradley closes his other eye and a small smile pulls on his lips. His look sends shivers down my spine as we walk by. "I hope Gr-"

"Don't." I hiss. "He never existed."

Leigh nods softly and sighs. "I've lost two families now…" Her voice wobbles and she looks like she's going to cry. When I squeeze her hand she lets out a sob, I wish I could say something to cheer her up but I don't know what it feels like to lose someone, not in the ways she has. She lost her parents and she actually remembered them, maybe it's like losing Greed… only he knew he was leaving… how would I have felt if he suddenly wasn't there? Sad maybe, hurt probably.

.-.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. My two friends also have OCs in the story, you will meet them later, and they own them. Don't use our OCs without our you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

We didn't pack much food. We didn't pack much of anything. Leigh and I settle into a building away from the Devil's Nest and go through what we packed in our haste. A knife, the sheet, the Alchemy book, a box of matches, a single jacket, a candle, and a box of crackers. The crackers were stale to boot.

"First things first, we need water and food." I say.

"Where are we going to find that?"

"Find it?" I ask.

We stare at each other, we're completely useless, still, we head outside and search for any food and water we could find. Of course neither of us had any money, which would be the easy thing to do. As we walk I think and plan, "We should leave Dublith… I'm sure _he'd_ want us to get as far away as we could."

"You talk like he's dead."

"He is." My throat closes up but there's no point in denying it. He died and he's left us on our own. When I close my eyes I can still feel his fingers in my hair, his nails scratching on my scalp, that's behind us though. Leigh nods and puffs up her chest, she made it through the death of her parents well, just long nights of crying, she can make it through the death of a man she rarely knew.

Our shoes thump against the ground as we walk. My eyes don't really look for food or water, instead I search for a map. Leigh takes my arm and pulls me to a bulletin board there's a map of Amestris on it. My finger stabs Dublith and we both search for a nearby town.

"Rush Valley." We say together. While it's not far from Dublith it's a start. "Maybe we can get a job there." Leigh says.

"Who would hire two 15 year old girls?" I think realistically.

"You never know. If a man like Gr-… him can take us in then we can find work." I nod and we start walking. "We're going to be on the road for a while aren't we?" I nod again. "At least we still have each other."

"Yea, better than nothing, right?"

Leigh nods and we focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Faces and buildings pass and eventually we're on our own on a dirt road. Leigh takes off her boots, Dolcetto gave her them, and stomps around barefoot.

"You'll cut your feet…"

"No I won't." And I don't question her. A breeze picks up and carries my hair around me. It blows into my mouth and I pout and spit the hair back out. Maybe Greed was right, my hair is too long, but I like the way it feels under my fingers.

We walk in silence for the longest time. Leigh and I don't need to talk to understand each other, we just know. Eventually, my legs feel like jelly and I don't want to walk anymore. The two of us settle on the side of the road and kick our feet out in front of us. Leigh draws another transmutation circle and transmutes a little pillar out of earth. She then kicks it and it topples over. After a moment we stand and start walking again. The sun shines down on us, I lick my lips often to keep them moist, I wish we had water.

"I'm thirsty." Leigh whines.

"Me too." I breath deeply and suddenly veer left, off the path.

"Where are you going?" Leigh asks following after me.

As we walk past a few trees the sound of water grows louder. I push back a small branch and smile at the stream before dropping my hands into the stream. We drink greedily from the small stream.

"I wish we had something to carry this in." Leigh murmurs as she drinks from the stream. I let the water tickle the tips of my fingers, suddenly it feels like water is tickling my whole body, like there's water all around. My eyes squeeze shut as images flood my mind. "Avis?" Leigh's voice calls through my haze, her hands touch my arm and I feel water pulse like blood.

My eyes spring open, images of circles flash behind my eyes and I dig my nail into the ground beside us. A perfect circle, inverted triangle, two half moon shaped wrapped around each other. I slam my hands down onto the circle like I'd seen Leigh do and water molecules around me condense into droplets and rain down onto my clothes.

"Woah!" Leigh jumps back as I just sit there. "You can do alchemy."

_He patted my head and told me all about water molecules. "Water's everywhere," he said, "you just need to feel it." He showed my special circles that would help me use the water molecules to help me. "Only in emergencies Avis."_

"My father taught me." I murmur.

"That's so cool! You can get water for us whenever we want!"

"No… only in emergencies." I state before I shake my hair, water flying off the tips. Leigh and I start our path again, my hand drawing that circle over and over again. I remember a piece of paper filled with circles. Now all I could think about were the water molecules swimming around me. I could control them into anything I wanted to. Daddy showed me how. He sat me on his knee and showed me pretty circles, I remember Greed wasn't the only one who would run his fingers through my hair, Daddy did a lot to. Something tugs inside me what happened to Daddy? And my mother? Did I even have a mother? I try and think of her but I get nothing besides the memory of learning alchemy.

Leigh and I walk in silence, our feet crunching against the ground. The breeze from earlier picks up, at times the wind whips my hair around so fast it stings my face. Something inside me worries but we keep walking, even when the sun starts to set. There's nothing nearby, no houses, little shelter, the sound of the stream has long passed. Without anything to do, we keep walking. My legs scream at me just before the sun sets, my lungs hurt and I want to stop.

"Why don't we walk until we find something I can make a shelter out of?" Leigh offers, probably feeling as sore as me.

"Sure."

My feet hurt with each step, breathing becomes harder, and the wind and cold burns my throat. Just when I'm ready to collapse Leigh walks off the trail to a bolder, I follow as she picks up a rock and scratches her transmutation circle onto the surface. Blue lightning crackles and the rock cracks in two forming a teepee.

"It's better than nothing." She murmurs as she slides into the area. It's just wide enough for the two of us to lie on our backs side by side. I drop the blanket around us and we use the backpack as a pillow. Leigh's warm against me as the wind howls outside. I want Greed. I want my father. I want to remember my mother. To hide my tears I turn away from Leigh and frown into the darkness.

A bird chirps loudly, again and again, I sit up too fast and smack my head against the side of the shelter. With a groan I roll over and find Leigh's already left, I pack the blanket and clamber my way out. Leigh stands whistling back to the bird I heard. The same notes the bird repeated. The bird would chirp, Leigh would copy, the bird would chirp again, Leigh would copy. It goes on for a while until I step forward and snap a branch, the bird flutters off.

"Let's go." I say, Leigh nods and destroys the rock. We don't want to leave much evidence behind of our move. I feel weird to leave everything behind but Leigh's done it, and I've done it, not that I remember.

By late afternoon we arrive at Rush Valley, canyons and mountains started to jut up as we walked today. It had been a promising sign. Now in the new town my nerves crack, people mill about in every direction, shiny object glint the sun into my eyes. What do we do now?

"Let's go search for a 'Help Wanted' sign." Leigh says surely, "My dad told me that when places need help they put out a sign." I trail after the brunette through the crowds of people. Men and women of all sizes walk by. Big burly men, skinny men, short men, chesty women, bulky women, twiggy women. A kid races by us, laughing and giggling, flailing his arms. His left arm was metal and shiny. The more I look, the more I see people with metal limbs. Most of the stores I see say "Automail" in bold letters. Outside various shops are metal limbs, dangling from the roof and sides. Is automail metal limbs?

Leigh suddenly grabs my hand and pulls me through a thick crowd of people. We go down a back alley, shops look smaller and dingier down here, but there are more signs wanting help. She picks a shop at random and turns into it. Inside is a young man bent over a metal arm.

"Excuse me." Leigh murmurs. He looks up suddenly, he's got short black hair and dark eyes, he looks us over with curiosity. "We, uhm, saw the sign for help wanted."

"Do you know how to repair automail?"

"No." Leigh says as I shake my head.

"Would you be willing to learn?" Leigh and I look at each other, work is work, we turn to the man and nod our heads. He smiles, "I'm Josh."

"I'm Leigh."

"Avis." I nod my head softly.

"Nice to meet you ladies now…" Josh turns and hands us a large book and a crummy looking limb. "Learn." We stare at him for a moment before I take the book and head off to a clean table. Leigh and I settle down and set to work.

.-.

For a week we work under Josh, earning a little money and learning quite a lot about automail. Josh doesn't get many costumers but he doesn't seem to mind as he tinkers with the limbs he's made. It's fun to watch him, how his eyebrows furrow, his muscular arms flex. Leigh and I often just sit and watch him work.

It was a lazy Wednesday and Leigh and I sat fiddling with an arm when a young man rushes in wearing a blue military uniform, my body cringes at the sight. Bradley. The man speaks quickly about someone losing their leg, Josh stands and runs off ordering us to watch his shop. Leigh and I look at each other. Someone lost their leg? And they came to _Josh_ to get automail? Not that Josh's work wasn't good, but there were much better mechanics in the area considering Rush Valley was the Mecca for automail.

Maybe two minutes later Josh races into the shop carrying a woman in his arms in a blue uniform. Her leg was missing from the knee down and seemed to be bound by red bandages. Josh yells orders that Leigh and I race around each other to get. "Bandages! . . . Clips! . . . Water! Now!" I scrawl a transmutation circle in the bottom of an empty basin and touch it, the water molecules in the air condense and form water inside the basin, though the air feels dryer for a moment everything slowly evens itself out.

Eventually Josh kicks us out of the room while he suits her up for a new automail leg. Leigh and I sit outside the door with that military boy beside us. None of us speak. My arm twitches as I wait, Josh says that when you link the nerves it hurts a lot, most men cry. Maybe since the woman's unconscious she won't hurt as bad. A scream pierces the air and Leigh and I grab hands tightly. Moments pass and Josh exits wiping his forehead with a bloody rag.

"She just needs rest." He informs the man.

"Yes sir! Thank you sir!"

Josh smiles warmly and ruffles the top of my head and then Leigh's. "You two did a good job. Thanks." I beam up at him under his praise. "Now, we should talk about payment Erics." Josh leans back into his chair, "Since it's a rush call and a new limb… let's see…." Josh's nose wiggles as he calculates a price. When he calls it I'm shocked at how expensive it is. "Oh, and I'll take 10 percent because its you Erics… and another 10 because it's a woman."

The man, Erics, salutes, "Thank you Captain!"

"Captain?" Leigh asks. My eyes dart between Erics and Josh. "You're a part of the military?"

Josh leans back into his chair and smiles, "Yea, I'm a part of the military, I run this podunk automail shop to help those around. I don't want a lot of people knowing I'm military though so…" He taps his lips and winks at us.

.-.


	4. Chapter 4

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. My two friends also have OCs in the story, you will meet them later, and they own them. Don't use our OCs without our you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

With the lady resting, Erics pacing back and forth, and Josh preparing for when the lady woke up Leigh and I were free to explore Rush Valley. People pass us without giving us a second glance, we've grown to fit in quite well in the last view days.

"That Erics guy said the lady was hurt right around here." Leigh says as we head into a busy, restaurant part of town. "He said people were causing havoc and they went to stop it… and something fell onto her leg… cutting it off probably saved her life."

"I'd hate to be in that situation."

"But you were sorta." Leigh points to my stomach and I realize I've been touching the scars under my shirt the whole time. "And I was too, only you saved me." We smile.

My eyes drift over her shoulder and I notice a bright color among all the dusty browns. Goldenrod. I step around Leigh and nearly bump into quite a few people but I eventually find a body face-first in the ground between two alleys. Curiously I poke the soft body, Leigh appears at my side and pokes the man with me. He lets out a groan and starts to sit up slowly.

"Are you hurt?" I ask him softly.

"Hungry." He murmurs, his stomach lets out a small growl.

"We don't have any food though." Leigh tells him.

"Or money." I add. When he sits up I get my first good look at him. White pants, goldenrod jacket opened to reveal a toned chest, long black hair with long bangs, closed eyes, and a smile. He wasn't from around here. "Oh, maybe you could keep me company then? Lovely ladies such as yourself are sure to make me feel better." What an interesting way to flirt, I'm used to Greed's completely obvious flirts and passes, not this flattery. "I'm Ling Yao."

"Avis."

"Leigh." "Beautiful names." He smiles wider.

"Young lord!" A black clothed figure with a frightening mask appears suddenly behind the boy who couldn't be much older than us. "Sire, we must leave before those alchemists find us again."

Ling glances at us, "My apologizes ladies. It's been a pleasure meeting you and I hope we meet again in the future." He waves and just like that he and the figure vanish.

"That was weird."

"Yea." I murmur.

"I feel bad we didn't have any food for him."

"Me too but he just disappeared anyways."

"Mhmm. I wonder who he was talking about, the alchemists, I haven't seen any around here… besides us." Leigh kicks her feet out as we walk. After about an hour we turn and head back to Josh's shop, my stomach's starting to growl and Leigh's is too.

The door creaks when we walk in and I'm surprised to find the lady sitting at the table with a depressed look on her face. Her eyes lift just enough to see us and I realize she's not much older than us. A soft face, short, light blond hair, blue eyes, and her skin has a medium peach color to it. She looks back to the food in front of her and her shoulders weep forward. The shine of automail catches my eye, I look down and from her knee down is all shiny new automail, the skin around the wound is red and looks a lot like my stomach scar back when I first got it.

"Don't stare it's rude." The lady snaps, her voice hoarse from her screams.

"Don't talk Anabelle sir! You shouldn't even be up!" Erics gushes over the woman. She pays him no mind and glares at us. Leigh slides by me and gets herself a bowl of the stew that's been simmering all day. I follow right after her and we settle across from Anabelle who stares into her bowl absently.

"If your not going to eat you should go and rest soldier." Josh walks back into the room cleaning a piece of metal.

"No, I don't want to rest, I need to get back to my job." She starts to stand and Josh forces her back into her seat.

"You're going to need minimum of six months of rehab. You're more than welcome to go to Central or East or wherever your stationed soldier but you're under _my_ direct orders to complete rehab." Josh glares at the lady until she gives in and her shoulders slump. "Girls go take inventory." Josh's tone makes Leigh and I scurry off into the back room to "take inventory".

"I've never seen Josh get so… forceful." I murmur as I fiddle with a nut.

"Me either. That lady seems real serious about whatever she does."

"Yea."

"She's an alchemist." "Huh?"

"Didn't you notice?" Leigh cocks her head at me and when I shake mine she continues. "She had a silver pocket watch. I saw it on the table. I figure if it was Erics he'd be wearing it. So she's got to be an alchemist."

"Maybe we can talk to her about our alchemy." I murmur, I haven't touched any transmutation circles since we arrived in Rush Valley, my body itches to feel the same sense of excitement.

"Yea!" Leigh's eyes light up but when we return Anabelle is gone. The door to the patient's room is closed and I figure she's asleep. Josh sits at the table and doesn't look up when we sit across from him to finish our stew. "Will she be ok?"

"Of course." Josh says quickly. "Anabelle is a strong-willed woman from what I've seen. I can't see her staying in rehab the full time." He sighs and looks up at us, "If you two somehow end up with automail you had _better_ stay in rehab and do whatever your mechanic tells you alright?"

"Yessir." We say together.

.-.

A huge fire burns before my eyes. Tears swell but evaporate with the heat. Leigh's hand slides into mine and I give it a strong squeeze. Our third home, our third family, destroyed. There was no word where Josh was and I knew in my gut he was in that fire, burnt to a crisp. A sob escapes my lips and I cling desperately to Leigh who holds me back. Anabelle had just been released this morning and she and Erics disappeared faster than Ling Yao. Leigh and I were getting ready to go shopping when we smelled smoke, we got out of there as quickly as possible, just as we got out a huge explosion took the whole shop down.

A hand settles on my shoulder and I look up to find it's one of the mechanics that often visited Josh. People, even in the middle of the night, come up and give us hugs and offer condolences. There was nothing more they could do. Once the house was turning to embers everyone had left leaving Leigh and I alone on the ground.

"Just think… if we didn't go shopping at night we would have been in there…" Leigh murmurs.

"I would have rather died." I hiss through my teeth. I don't want to go and get attached to another person only to have them be taken out from under me. The sky is dark black when I glare up at it, cursing whatever creature is laughing at mine and Leigh's misery.

.-.

"Avis, I'm hungry." Leigh murmurs as we shuffle through the dark streets together. Despite the fact my pocket is weighted down with cens I didn't want to spend any of it, not until I knew we had no choice. "Avis, I'm thirsty." I ignore her and we walk forward. "Avis." She whines. "Please." And I start to cry.

If anybody saw us sitting in the middle of the street sobbing into each other's shoulders nobody did anything. Everyone in the city knew we lived with Josh, everyone knew he was practically our father, yet when Josh left nobody would step up and take us in. My heart kept clenching inside my chest as I forced the emotions away. I didn't cry this hard over Greed and I loved him, why am I crying over Josh who I rarely knew?

_Be strong_. A voice whispers through the air.

I flash back and I see Greed sitting me onto his lap. His arms drape around me naturally and I fit perfectly against his chest. "The world's a bitch out there doll, people are cruel and only look out for themselves. You have to be stronger than all that. Don't rely on _anyone _because nobody is going to help you in life." That was before I met Leigh, before I decided Leigh and I are the same person in two different bodies. Leigh will be the only person I rely on and the only person I'll allow to rely on me.

"Let's move on." I murmur.

"Where to?"

"Somewhere." Somewhere new so we can try our hand at a new life… again. Leigh sighs and we glance at each other before we, once again, start walking. The night turns to day slowly. As we walk, with my feet aching in my boots, I realize I like dawn. I like the colors, the soft oranges, yellows, and pinks, and how the blend so beautifully into the dark night sky. The air is cool and the birds start to chirp, only at dawn is it possible. Leigh skips along beside me, I notice when something goes wrong she becomes a little extra cheerful, once she dropped a plate and Martel got all angry and for the next hour Leigh was skipping everywhere with a huge grin on her face pretending nothing was wrong.

For the next day Leigh and I walk practically nonstop. We only stop to drink water. We've left everything completely behind and brought nothing with us but a pocket full of cens, and the strip of Greed's sheet tied to my bra strap. My knees shake, my thighs burn, and each breath sends a fire through my stomach, but I refuse to give in. Leigh moans beside me clearly fairing no better than me.

"Hey, do you ladies need a ride?" Cars and horse-drawn carts had been driving by us since the sun was high in the sky and everyone just drove right by. Except this one. I look over the young woman and nod my head. "Where are you heading?"

"Anywhere." Leigh murmurs.

"I'm heading to Central, if you're ok with that."

"Sure."

"It's going to be a long ride."

"Woulda been longer walking."

"Point taken." The car rattles down the road and the lady falls silent for a while. "I'm Lily, by the way." "Avis and this is Leigh."

.-.

Lily shares her story with us, she helps run a grocery store and often makes the long drive down to Rush Valley for automail parts. As much as I don't want to tell her our story Leigh speaks for us. She makes up a lie how we're sisters and our house burned down, it's not a complete lie, and Lily shares her sympathy and offers us a job but I politely refuse. I don't want to bounce between people, Leigh and I will support ourselves.

Central shines before us like a beacon, the whites of the buildings reflecting the early morning light. I shake Leigh until she wakes up and we watch as we approach our destination. My eyes widen as I see how tall the buildings are. I've never seen anything like it before, the mountains were tall in Rush Valley but this is so… amazing.

My heart thumps when Lily stops the car and looks at us. "This is my store girls… if you ever need anything let me know ok?" We nod and say goodbye. Lily tries to offer us a job and a place to stay but this time it's Leigh that refuses.

As we walk away and mingle into the crowd, with the backpack of supplies Lily forced us to take, I ask Leigh, "Why'd you say no to her? We could have a home and a place to stay tonight."

"Dolcetto told me never to rely on anyone but myself… you're the only exception though." I smile at Leigh and we start through the streets. My first thought was to find a less populated area so we could make some place to live.

.-.

The next morning Leigh and I split up in search of jobs. Central's big and we'd cover more ground. As I walk I remember our conversation from last night, we decided we should get a job, but we wouldn't go to Lily since she'd only hire us out of sympathy. Nobody was to know we were homeless. I don't actually notice any of the stores as I walk around, I just wander about, hands in my pockets, taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells. My mind drifts off and I start to fiddle with the ends of my hair.

_Greed sighed as he sat down beside me, his nails scratched my scalp as he started to stroke my hair. He assumed I was asleep, I was until he entered the room. I kept quiet, Greed was different when he thought I was sleeping. The repeated movement of his hand running though my hair soothed me almost to sleep before Greed started to whisper. "You're going to be something Avis. Whatever happens you keep your head straight and trust in yourself." Leigh was off somewhere with Dolcetto, playing checkers maybe, while I wanted a nap. Greed adjusted the sheets around me, the silky material felt cool against my skin. "You and Leigh. You're both good girls and don't you forget it ok?" He sighs, his hands settle onto my shoulders. I get ready to open my eyes but Greed's breath is suddenly on my face and I have no choice but to wait and wonder. His breath tickles and smells of alcohol before he sighs and something warm and soft presses to my temple. Then he's gone, out of the room, leaving me to wonder if he kissed my temple or not._

My shoulder bumps something and I stop to apologize only to find a short blond boy glaring up at me. "Sorry." I dip my head and let the boy pass by with a large suit of armor following after him. Central has a lot of strange people. I ruffle my hair and decide to head back, I didn't see any "Help Wanted" signs in any shops. Leigh and I have decided to camp out in what appears to be an old warehouse. While I wait I organize the backpack Lily gave us. A lot of food, a canteen, matches, a sweater, and a knife. My hand digs under my blue shirt to wrap around the piece of Greed's sheet. We're strong enough to last through this. I have faith.

Leigh saunters into the warehouse with a frown. "I didn't find one sign."

"Me either." I tell her as she drops next to me.

"You'd think for such a big city there'd be plenty of jobs."

"There's probably a lot of people to fill the jobs."

"So we're jobless."

"We have food, I can get water." And I have a pocket full of cens still.

"True." Leigh sighs and I feel her worry but I push it away we'll be able to survive.

.-.A/N: Yea, I realize I keep killing off people but it's needed. I promise the death will stop here, unless it's in the actual plotline.


	5. Chapter 5

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my friends. If you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update, I'm trying to keep the story close to the actually storyline so it takes me a while to watch some episodes, take notes, and then write the story.

.-.

Central sucks.

Leigh and I look each and every day for a job or any type of work. Nobody even looks twice at the two of us. We go a few days without food, since we don't have much, but I never let us go without water. The sun's bright and I settle myself on a corner of some street, through my walks I've seen helpless children sitting, asking for money. But when people walk by, nobody notices me.

Greed's suddenly inside my head. _"What are you doing?"_

"Greed?" I ask.

"_Again, what the hell are you doing?"_ It sure sounded like Greed.

"Ah?"

"_Get up. You're better than this."_

I do as I'm told and my eyes instantly search for the spiky haired guy. When I don't find him my feet start to walk, I have to find Leigh.

"_If I ever find you trying to beg for money I _will_ be incredibly disappointed in you Avis."_ And his voice disappears.

I find Leigh in the west end of Central watching people walk by. She jumps when I appear next to her. "Leigh." I breath.

"What?" Her voice jumps.

"I heard Greed's voice."

"What? Where?" I explain what happened and her eyes widen. "That's so weird."

"You're telling me." I rub my head. "I'm worried though, we're running low on supplies and I'm sure he would kill us if we stole or begged for food."

She nods her head and we look back to the crowds of people walking by. Now where do we go? What do we do? Leigh's hand is warm in mine as we clasp hands, whatever happens we'll have each other.

And Greed's advice right?

.-.

Night fell too quickly, Leigh and I planned to search the nightlife for jobs. Maybe we could find a job at a pub or something. Our boots clack in sync as we walk through back alleys hunting for a pub. My fingers twitch around a piece of chalk, I took the precaution to buy a piece of chalk for us to make transmutation circles. We need some form of protection.

I turn a corner and smash face first into something solid. The ground is hard and cold when I smack on the ground. Quickly I look up, my hands starting to make a transmutation circle, only to find a familiar face.

"Anabelle?" Leigh murmurs.

"Leigh? Avis?" The blond girl looks between the two of us before she glares, "What the hell are you doing here in Central?"

"Josh's shop burned down." I tell her as I stand up slowly.

"Again, what the _hell_ are you doing here in Central?"

"Trying to find a job?"

"Where are you staying?" When we tell her Anabelle smacks both of us on the top of the head. "You're both idiots! Do you have any idea what kind of people are out in the world today? You're just asking to be raped and murdered." I keep my mouth shut, not knowing what to say. "I may hate people like you but I can't stand to see kids roaming the streets alone." Her eyes flash before she sighs, "Go and get your shit, you're moving in with me."

"What?" We exclaim together.

"You heard me! I'm not going to have you two out on the streets and find out a week later you've been raped and murdered. I have too much to worry about than two pathetic girls on the streets." Anabelle grabs Leigh's arm and starts to haul her away. I race after not wanting to leave my best friend alone.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" I murmur as we head back to the warehouse. "It's only been a few days, you should be resting for a month a-"

"Don't lecture me kid." Anabelle growls under her breath. "I'll be fine."

.-.

Anabelle's apartment was small. It opened up into a living room and kitchen, with a bedroom and bathroom off to one side. She apologized for the mess, clothes scattered about, dishes in the sink, trash on the coffee table. Anabelle decided to let us stay with her on the condition we cleaned her house, stayed out of trouble, and found jobs. While she digs through a small closet for blankets and pillows I settle myself onto the couch.

"Why were you out so late?" Anabelle asks.

"To get a job at a pub or something."

Annabelle "tsk"s us and I don't bother telling her I practically grew up in a pub with Greed and the others. Instead I ask, "What were _you_ doing out so late?"

"Military business." She says quickly, pointing down to her blue military uniform. When she stands, arms full of blankets, her knee buckles and she drops back to the ground. "Stupid piece of-"

"Hey!" Leigh jumps forward. "Don't bad mouth Josh's hard work. He saved your life with that automail l-" "Do not tell _anyone_ I have an automail leg, got it?" The glare in her eyes makes me frown. Why is she so against having an automail leg? People in Rush Valley all have automail something-or-other or work at an automail shop, why should people in Central be any different? Still, it's not my place, so I bite my tongue. "Run down to the basement and put these in the wash. Sorry, you'll have to go without blankets for the night. Tomorrow I'll give you money to buy some new clothes." Her nose turns up at the grubby clothes Leigh and I wear. "I'm going to sleep." And just like that she stalks into her bedroom and closes the door. Leigh and I look at each other and down at the clothes in Leigh's arms.

"Let's go get these washed." I murmur.

Anabelle's apartment was on the third floor, so the walk to the basement wasn't a bad one. We wash the blankets together in silence and once they're washed and hung to dry we turn to each other. "What now?" Leigh asks.

"We live here and hope Anabelle doesn't die too."

Leigh cracks a smile before we head back up to Anabelle's room. We settle on the couch, side by side, my eyes droop and I lean back and close my eyes. Leigh yawns beside me and she shifts how she sits and I think we both fall asleep.

.-.

A voice hums softly, a slow tune. Laughter fills the room. Hands grab my waist and I realize I'm the one laughing. I'm set onto Daddy's knee, my hands flailing, clenching and unclenching above my head. "Mammy!" I cry. Soft, blond hair tickles against my cheeks as lips press to the top of my head.

"My pretty baby." A musical voice sings, a warm hand strokes my cheek before Daddy's fingers tickle my sides. I close my eyes and giggle. When I open them and look around Mammy's not there.

"Mammy?" I ask.

"She'll be home soon baby." Daddy says into my ear before giving me a kiss.

.-.

I wake up in a cold sweat. My hair sticks to my neck and I peel it away before I sit up and look around. Anabelle's apartment. Light soaks through the windows and I find my way to the bathroom. Mammy left, a long time ago, the tune she sang still rings in my head. When my eyes squeeze shut tears leak from the corners of my eyes. A knock on the door pulls me from my thoughts.

"Out, I need to get ready." Anabelle calls through the door. I wipe my eyes and hurry from the bathroom. The blond walks around me and closes the door. Moments later I hear the shower start to run. Leigh sighs from the couch and I curl up beside her and go back to sleep. I drift in and out of consciousness as Anabelle gets ready for the day. The door slams and I jolt from a sleep. Leigh sits up beside me and we look at each other. We have the whole day to ourselves. She shuffles off to the bathroom and my stomach pulls me to the kitchen.

The fridge was filled with food, I dig out some food for myself and Leigh. We lean against the counter as we eat and I notice an envelope. Inside is a wad of cash and a note telling us where to get clothes and where to get toiletries. Suppose we'll be shopping for the day.

Leigh and I explore Central in a different eye, instead of being in the slums and back alleys, we walk the main streets and search shops for clothes rather than "help wanted" signs. We find the second store Anabelle mentioned, Leigh figured it'd be easier to buy things we _need_ first and then spend the rest on clothes. We buy a brush, toothpaste, two toothbrushes, shampoo, body wash, and some pretty smelling perfume. It didn't cost us much so I felt good about dividing the money between us and keeping a little to store away with the cens I had left over from earlier.

The clothing store was full of a wide variety of clothes at decent prices. Inside was a sole employee and a young woman shopping. Leigh and I awkwardly move about the store before I think about what we need. We both have the same outfit; tank top, a light jacket, pants, boots. The boots are holding up nicely, Dolcetto had some high quality stuff. So, I start looking for shirts and pants and, most importantly, a thicker jacket. Eventually I lose myself in the colors, shades, shapes, styles, patterns, and I give up, plopping down on a bench to let my mind unwind.

"Would you girls like some help?" The employee asks.

"Yea." Leigh walks over, clearly having as much trouble as I was.

"Alright," The middle-aged lady smiles, "let's take some measurements." Turns out Leigh and I are about the same size; I'm a little taller and fuller in the hips and she's just a touch shorter and has thicker shoulders than me. Still, the woman, Amy, tells us it shouldn't matter very much. That means we can buy half the clothes and share them, we spend less money.

The lady helps us buy four pairs of pants (one pair are shorter), two new tank tops, two long sleeved shirts, two short sleeved shirts, and two new jackets, and then she picked out four pair of sleep clothes for us. She told us we had to wash clothes every now and then and that it was ok to wear jeans a few times before they need to be washed. She then told us if we brought our current clothes to her she'd patch them up for us.

Leigh and I left arm in arm with our things hanging from our other hands. I couldn't stop smiling, maybe things will turn around from here on out. When we head to the apartment, Leigh runs downstairs and gets our blanket before we head upstairs.

"We should clean the house." I tell Leigh as we walk.

"Yea."

The key turns easily when I stick it into the lock. The door opens and Leigh places the bags on the couch before we set to work. All the garbage was thrown into a big bag and carted back downstairs. The dishes are washed, old food is thrown out, Anabelle's laundry is washed. Everything seems to be in place. We change from our old clothes into the new and I look over our old clothes, there's frayed edges, holes, and stains. Still, they remind me of home. I wind the clothes up and put them into the bag our new clothes came in, then we're back downstairs and out of the apartment with the left over money in my pocket. The nice lady is waiting for us and takes our old clothes from us.

Leigh and I loop arms and leave the store for the second time that day. Together we wander the city, exploring, going into shops, watching people walk by. After the longest time we head back to the apartment, we curl up on the couch and play a game we found on a small bookshelf. Anabelle arrived home shortly after our fourth game. She's momentarily shocked by our presents but shakes it off and walks into the bathroom. When she returns she plops into the couch beside me and rubs her knee.

"You should be resting it." I tell her.

"I don't care." Anabelle growls.

"Why does it bother you so much?" Leigh whispers.

Anabelle glares and we both close our mouths. She sighs and leans back into the couch. "I see you bought some clothes. Good." Neither of us tell her about the extra money. Just in case we need to leave again I want to keep the money nearby. My hand skims my bra where I have the sheet tied and half the left over cens, Leigh has the other half. Anabelle groans and starts to rub the bridge of her nose.

"Rough day?" Leigh asks.

Anabelle snickers, "You have no idea kid."

"I'm not a kid." Leigh frowns.

"You're a kid to me." The blond leans forward and starts to rub her knee again. "Hand me that newspaper." I pick up the paper and notice the headline "Maria Ross, Suspected Killer of Brigadier General Hughes Has Been Killed" and below was a picture of a body burned beyond all recognition. The report catches my eye, Brigadier General is a big rank… it's said she was burned yesterday evening by a Colonel Roy Mustang. The article talks about how she'd escaped and the military went on her trail.

"Hey, is this why you were out last night?" I ask holding up the article.

"Yes now give it over. Please." I hand over the article and Leigh and I look at each other. "Hughes was a good man he didn't deserve to die." Anabelle's hands shake a little before her eyes narrow and she's back to her normal self.

"So do you work for this Colonel Mustang?" Leigh asks, reading the article over Anabelle's shoulder.

"Yea, just recently though, I was transferred from the north… long enough to befriend the Brigadier General though. He has a lovely wife and a daughter that just turned three." She said absently.

"How sad." I murmur.

"That's the risk we take joining the military." The blond clears her throat before standing and stretching her hands over her head. "You two hungry?"

"A little." We reply.

.-.

Anabelle was a good cook, using spices in her food and making it look nice, it was one of the best meals we'd had in a long while. My stomach was full as Leigh and I curl under our new blanket together. Anabelle was heard rustling about in her bedroom but didn't seem to be coming out anytime soon.

Leigh sighs deeply beside me and I shift a little, "What now?"

"I dunno." Leigh murmurs.

"Life feels boring now."

"Yea but we'll adjust."

"Yea." I sigh and let my body drift off. I'm use to always having something to do, someone to talk to, but now there's nothing. I miss Greed.

.-.

Anabelle shuffling around wakes me up in the morning. She stretches her hands above her head before doing some toe touches. She doesn't seem to notice me watching her as she stands in front of the kitchen table. Her knee buckles and her hands claw at the table to keep her balance. Why is she so bent on forcing herself through this pain? Why isn't she recovering? And why does she not want us to tell people about it? The blond pulls into a blue military jacket and sticks a piece of paper to the door before she left.

Leigh sits up beside me and looks out the window, "It's before dawn… why is she up so early?"

"Why are you up?" I ask my friend as I slide from the bed.

"She woke me up… I knew you were awake." The brunette smiles wide. "I can tell now…. When you're awake that is."

"Wow." I tell her as she grabs the paper from the door. "What's it say?"

"Some chores…" Clean, she wants us to pick up her mail, stay out of trouble, answer the door for no one. Simple enough.

.-.


	6. Chapter 6

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my friends. If you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

I miss Greed so much. I miss Martel and Dolcetto too… and the rest of the group. They made life fun and interesting. I miss Josh, he gave us work to keep us busy. Anabelle just leaves us alone to wander around. I miss my parents, but I don't remember them well. How is Leigh dealing with all this?

Leigh's arm, wrapped tightly around my own, keeps me steady as we walk through Central. As we walk I hear a familiar voice, Leigh and I exchange looks before darting down an alley side by side. At the end of the alley we find a familiar figure talking to one of his black-clad pawns.

"Ling!" I exclaim.

The black haired boy turns and smiles at us, "Ah! The lovely ladies from Rush Valley! We're just destined to run into each other aren't we?" He charms his way over to us and gives us a hug. "What are you doing in Central?"

"We could ask you the same thing." Leigh says lightly.

"I'm searching for something." Ling explains. "But alas, I can't stay in your presences any longer… I must be on my way… I hope we meet again." He smiles before he and the black figure vanish again, just as fast as they did before.

"I wonder what they're searching for." Leigh comments as we leave the alley.

"I want to know how we managed to find them amid all this noise." I flap my arms at my sides to simulate the sounds of Central, people talking and yelling, cars clattering, dogs barking, cats howling, hammers hammering, and that's only the half of it.

"Life's full of mysteries." Leigh says. "Dolcetto would say that to me sometimes."

"I miss them."

"Me too."

We walk together for a while. As we walk I notice that blond kid from earlier with the hulking suit of armor behind him. I point them out. "Weird." Leigh says, "And we've seen weird." We giggle and continue on our way. At home we get the game board out from yesterday and start to play. At noon time Anabelle comes homes. "I'm taking a shower." And she leaves. We continue playing for a while until we hear a knock on the door and I get up to get it out of instinct. "Don't ans-" Anabelle calls through the bathroom door but it was too late and a pair black eyes stared down at me.

"And you are?" The man asks.

"Ah, ah…." I step back, taking in his blue uniform, black hair, and black eyes.

"I told you not to answ- oh Colonel Mustang." Anabelle appears at my side with a bathrobe around her. "What are you doing here?"

"Something's come up and I need you to report back to base."

Blue eyes narrow, "I just got off duty."

"I know. I apologize Major but-"

"Give me five minutes." She sighs and lets the man in. "Girls this is Roy Mustang. Mustang this is Avis and Leigh." And just like that Anabelle vanishes into the bathroom to change.

The man looks down at us before clearing his throat. "I didn't realize you had roommates."

"We're not." I mutter.

"May I ask who you girls are?"

"Just girls that Anabelle has taken in." Leigh says.

Black eyes observe us for a moment. Mustang walks by us and I notice a silver chain from his hip, Anabelle has one too.

"What's that?" I ask pointing.

"This?" Mustang pulls a pocket watch from his pocket and holds it out for us to see. "Besides being a pocket watch it shows that I'm a State Alchemist."

My eyes widen and I imagine Leigh's do too. "You're an alchemist? And Anabelle is too? Wow."

"Yes. I'm the Flame Alchemist and she's the Alchemist of the Tides." I tilt my head to the side. "Each State Alchemist is given a title…. Do you guys know about alchemy?"

Leigh and I glance to each other before we both nod. "Yea, we know a little alchemy."

"Interesting. Would you like to show me at some time?" Mustang smiles at Leigh who blushes and looks away.

"They're too young for you Mustang." Anabelle chides as she exits the bathroom in her uniform. "C'mon."

"I'll be seeing you around ladies." Mustang winks, Anabelle smacks his shoulder, and they exit as they start to argue.

"He was cute." Leigh murmurs.

"He's like 30 years old."

"No! He's so not that old!"

"He looks like Greed." I glance at Leigh who puffs up her cheeks in response. "Yes, I'm sure he'll love you more like that." I snicker and Leigh starts to laugh with me.

.-.

Anabelle for the next two days complained about Mustang and how unprofessional he was when Hawkeye wasn't around. Whenever we asked who Hawkeye was she'd brush us off and say Mustang's little dog. It was early in the evening when Anabelle stormed into the apartment. "They're up to something." She yells at Leigh and I who had bought a new game to play.

"Who?"

"Mustang and his other lackeys of course! They have to be… Hawkeye taking time off…. Falman sickness…. And then Mustang just leaving today? They're doing something. And nobody else in the office knew." Anabelle growls and storms off into the bathroom where several bangs follow. Leigh and I just look at each other a little dumb-struck.

We all fell silent when the blond exited the bathroom, she glances down at our game, sighs, and drops into her chair. "Sorry I blew up, it just…. Ugh, they didn't tell me. Whatever they're doing I'm sure I could be of some help. I'm sure Mustang had his reasons." She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose, "That stupid fool. Alright, let's see what I can cook today." She heaves herself from her chair and shuffles into the kitchen.

Leigh and I trail after her and our caretaker starts to teach us how to cook. My heart feels light when I stir ingredients in a bowl, the motions made me feel good. Anabelle watches us before she takes the mixture and dumps it into a bowl with wet ingredients and then we mix that. As we mix and stir and add Anabelle tells us where she keeps all her recipes and she tells us about measurement conversions and techniques some recipes call for.

Learning makes my head hurt in a comfortable way, did my dad teach me other things besides alchemy? I have so many questions that will never be answered, not unless people can come back from the dead.

"_Now baby, remember this and never forget it. Human transmutation is a sin you are never allowed to try and bring someone back from the dead. When people die I know it's hard to deal with but they're dead forever." Daddy's voice catches as he tells me in a firm voice. "Alright?"_

"_Alright Daddy." I smile._

People stay dead. I can't talk to Greed or my parents or Josh ever again. But then…. What was that day I heard Greed talking to me? Either way he's dead.

.-.

"Come with me! Now!" Anabelle races into the apartment and grabs my wrist. I squeak and allow myself to be pulled from the couch. My pseudo-mother stops long enough for me and my pseudo-sister to put on our shoes before we're dragged away again. Anabelle walks at a brisk pace down the road, her eyes narrowed.

"What's wrong?" Leigh ventures to ask.

"Mustang… and Havoc…" Her slender fingers tighten around my wrist as she pulls me forward. Leigh and I glance at each other, something bad has happened.

We're lead into a hospital where soldiers salute Anabelle who pays them no mind, she's too determined at the moment. We trail behind her until she stops just outside a room. She squares her shoulders and walks in side, I enter a moment behind with Leigh at my side. Inside Mustang and a blond man are laying on identical hospital beds and another blond woman stands nearby in a blue uniform. Said woman salutes Anabelle who ignores her as well.

"What the hell?" My blond exclaims suddenly.

Mustang chuckles lightly, "And it's good to see you too Major Peters… Ah you brought Leigh and Avis, good to see you girls." I nod my head slowly.

"Mustang!" Anabelle slams her open palms down onto the bed sheet surrounding Mustang's body. "What the hell happened to the two of you?"

The blond man glances to Mustang, the black haired man just looks to his hands settled in his lap. "A… convict when into one of the labs we followed and it appears he had backup inside the lab." He says briefly. "I was hit in the stomach and Havoc in the back." My eyes dart to the blond man, his bright blue eyes meet mine and he frowns a little.

"I'm Jean Havoc." He pushes himself onto his elbows and smiles at me and Leigh.

"I'm Avis."

"And I'm Leigh."

"What interesting names." He smiles before lying back on the bed.

"Sir." The blond woman says in a curt tone. "You and Lt. Havoc need to _rest_."

"I'll be back." Anabelle glares. "I don't know what you've gotten yourselves into but I sure as hell hate the fact I'm not involved." Havoc swallows hard but he's the only one who gave a measurable reaction. "Let's go girls. I'm taking you out to lunch." Leigh cheers and I smile before giving a small wave to the three soldiers. Only Havoc waves back.

Anabelle takes us to a small restaurant and immediately starts grumbling about being left out, how stupid they were, and what idiots everyone was but her. I frown, I'm sure they had good reason, maybe the mission was too dangerous, they did come back injured. When the food arrives I'm taken back by how much food there is, Anabelle ordered a lot. And she eats a lot too. Plate after plate of food disappear. It's intriguing to watch where the food goes. Anabelle's the size of Leigh and I and I know I couldn't eat that much food if I wanted to.

"Alright, we're going to base for a moment, I need to pick up some papers." Anabelle pats her stomach as we walk down the street with full tummies.

"Are you sure it's allowed?" Leigh asks softly. This is a military base we're talking about.

"Nobody's going to ask questions." The blond huffs and stuffs her hands into her pockets. I get the feeling regardless of Anabelle's rank people respect her.

"What rank are you?"

"Major. All State Alchemists enter at the Major level." Anabelle pays no mind to us as she weaves through the crowds of people. Eventually we get to the large base and a foreboding feeling drops over my shoulders like a blanket, maybe since Greed wasn't exactly a perfect citizen I automatically fear the military? No that's not it. It's King Bradley. That mans frightens me. Even thinking about him makes me shudder. Still we walk through the doors, the lady behind the counter gives Leigh and I a long glance. "They're my step-sisters." Anabelle explains quickly as she leads us down the hallways.

All the halls and doors confuse me but I don't need to know where we're going. After numerous turns Anabelle enters a room that held a few men sitting at desks working. They all look up and greet her before glancing to me and my brunette sister. As hard as I tried I couldn't ignore them, their gazes were hateful, making me feel like we shouldn't be here. Some papers in hand Anabelle takes my wrist and pulls me out of the office with Leigh just behind. Halfway down a hallway two soldiers approach and stop the blond.

"Major Peters." One with black spiky hair says curtly as he glances at us. "This is for you." He extends a manila envelope which she takes and immediately opens.

"A warning?"

"Yes. A rogue Ishbalan we've named Scar is killing State Alchemists."

"So what? You want me to hide in my apartment until he's captured?"

"No, I want you to be aware of the man. He has an X-shaped scar on his forehead." The man points. "Don't do anything severe and draw attention to yourself." His eyes then dart to us, "And who are _these_ young ladies?"

"Visitors." Anabelle says sharply before she excuses us and starts to storm away but her knee gave out and she fell. The men rush to her side but she brushes them off and says, "My leg just cramped up that's all." They believe the lie and leave her be. Anabelle gets to her feet and continues out of the building. I still think she needs to rest her leg and let it heal. "I can't believe this. Ishbalans… good for nothing son's of-" And she stars going off cursing out all Ishbalans.

Leigh and I glance at each other and frown. Daddy's words spring in my head, _"Just because someone is different than you doesn't make them any better or any worse… doesn't matter what color their skin is, or their eyes, or their hair… everyone's human and we're all brothers and sisters."_ So I never thought twice about the way Greed looked, or Josh, or the people from Rush Valley, they're all just people trying to live. Why is Anabelle so against Ishbalans?

"Good for nothing father." She hisses under her breath before glancing up at Leigh and I, "You didn't hear that alright?" We glance to each other but nod anyways. "Good. Christ. Have to trust my secrets with two homeless girls."

"We're not homeless anymore." I point out.

"I could make you be." Her blue eyes shine with her threat.

"We won't tell anyone!" Leigh saves my skin just as we arrive at the apartment.

"Good. Now, teach me this game." Anabelle points to the board game we've been playing constantly. Leigh teaches her, I get confused on the rules myself. As they talk about the game I think, she cursed Ishbalans and her father in the same string of… oh that explains a lot. I take a glance at Anabelle from under my bangs, taking in her dark peach skin color that I'd originally thought was from a long time in the sun.

"Stop staring and join us." When the blond smiles it seems a little forced but I still sit down and join them in playing a game. What a band of misfits we are.

.-.

A/N: If you hadn't noticed this follows FMA: Brotherhood, while the three OCs haven't played a big role in the main plot they will, I just don't want to add all the details into it at the moment. Also, since this does follow Brotherhood there will end up being spoilers, and probably soon, just warning for those of you who haven't watched the series.


	7. Chapter 7

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Hazel Bishop. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my friends. If you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

A/N: Spoiler alerts, if you haven't seen the first half of FMA:B then I suggest you finish the show (or manga) before reading this fic. Granted at the moment I'm vague since Avis isn't in the action first hand but soon she will be!Also, I'm really sorry about not updating lately. I've been sidetracked with school and lately my wrist has been hurting too much to type for an extended period of time. I will update soon I promise!

.-.

Anabelle extends the military's warning to us, we're not to use our alchemy for anything. Even though it seems Scar is only targeting State Alchemists we live with one _and_ we're alchemists ourselves. So Leigh and I curl up on the floor with piles of books and study alchemy and transmutation circles. Anabelle set up a radio last night and set it to the a private military station and tells us to keep and ear open for anything serious. Random babblings fill the room as I look over various transmutation circles.

"Scar's attacking in -" My ears perk up and I listen to various men saying Scar is attacking, it seems he's in every place at once. Anabelle opens the door, since she comes home for lunch, hears the radio and freezes.

"Don't leave the house I'll be back soon!" And just like that she ran out the apartment. Leigh and I glance at each other why would we go hunting for a man trying to kill people? Then my heart stops.

"What if she dies?"

"She won't die. Anabelle is tough." Leigh nods her head surely and we both go back to our work paying close attention to the radio. Anabelle you better not die on us.

.-.

Night falls and there's no word from Anabelle or on the radio after the ruckus died down. Scar had run off and left a lot of damage behind. Leigh cooked supper but I didn't eat a bite, I was too worried I'd lose yet another family member. Where would we go _now_? Well, there's the abandoned house we started living in, we still have money left over, there's plenty of food here for us for a while. We'll be fine. We can live through -

The door slams shut and my head snaps up. I sigh, relieved, to see the blond woman standing in the doorway with a small frown on her face. She sighs too, hers more of exhaustion, and she drops into the couch to rub her leg. As much as I want to hug her I settle for folding my arms over my chest, she's alive, she's not dead!

"That was the worst." She murmurs. "Scar caused so much destruction, half the town's ruined… I spent most of my time cleaning up all the rubble… damn my leg aches." She frowns.

"So did they capture him?" Leigh asks.

"No, bastard got away." She huffs. "Maybe I would'a had him if Ed hadn't been there. That stupid brat."

"Who's Ed?" Leigh asks.

"The youngest State Alchemist." The alchemist replies in a fake-snooty voice. "Runs around like he owns the place. Che." Obviously she didn't care for this kid. "Regardless, the whole thing is over… Thank God." Anabelle leans back and lets out a sigh. After a few moments she drifts to sleep. I glance to Leigh and we head to the fire escape and climb it to the roof, sometimes we'd come up here in the dark of the night and just watch the sky. I sprawl out on my back and stare up at the black sky above us, Leigh does the same a moment later.

"Sounds like something big is happening." I murmur.

"Yea, but it's not like we can do anything."

"Nothing is impossible." I say feeling similar to Greed. "We might be able to help. You never know."

"True. Why don't we visit Mustang tomorrow?"

"You just want to see him again cuz he flirted with you."

"No!" Leigh says in a way that tells me she meant yes and it makes me start to laugh. My brunette friend lets out a whine but eventually starts to laugh with me. I don't know how long we lay up there and stare at the sky but it must have been a while because I've never seen the sky become so dark. As I lay there I let my mind wander and it drifts off.

"_Run." Hands press into my back and force me to the side. Everything is blurry and I run as hard as I can. My feet stub into something and I sprawl face first into the hardwood floor. Screams echo behind me and I cover my ears to block out Mommy. Daddy told me to run. I have to run._

_When I get back to my feet I turn to see a black figure moving in the living room. Mom screams again only this time she says my name. I step back and trip over something again, I fall on my back with a loud thump. Shadows move closer until a curvy figure stands over me. "Ah, there you are." She says in a sultry voice. She holds up her hands and her nails grow incredibly long in the blink of an eye. "Sorry sweetheart, you've seen too much." Her hand flicks downwards and pain shoots through my body. I scream and the corners of my blurry vision turn black._

_A loud strangled cry comes from the woman as she's suddenly forced to the side. "Run!" Daddy yells. "Run Avis! We love you!" I scramble to my feet, my feet slipping in the blood leaking from my stomach and I run. I run until my vision turns black and I keep running._

.-.

"Ah!" I sit up suddenly, sweat soaking my skin, and look around. Leigh and I fell asleep on the roof. I glance to my side and sure enough the brunette was lying there beside me. A drop of sweat drips down into my eye and I wipe at it. Someone killed my parents and they wanted to kill me… are they still after me? My eyes instantly start scanning the rooftops for the curvy woman but I find nothing.

It takes a few shakes but Leigh eventually wakes up and we crawl back into the apartment to find Anabelle just starting to wake up. Her hands stretch above her head and she glances back at us. I smile and head into the kitchen to start her coffee, the smell has become a routine thing despite the fact I don't like the taste of the stuff.

"Girls," Anabelle says as she exits the bathroom, "be careful, Scar is _still_ on the loose and I'd rather not have to clean your dead bodies off the side of the street." Leigh cringes beside me as she pours herself and Anabelle some coffee. "Alright?" We nod and she takes the cup and starts to drink. "Good job Avis. Stay safe." She sets the cup down, puts on her coat and leaves.

.-.

At lunch Anabelle comes home and brings us to the military base, we go to the infirmary and Havoc smiles up at us. "Well, well, I was wondering when I'd get to see you girls again."

"Care to watch over them for a while?" Anabelle asks.

"You mean like babysitting?" She nods and Havoc rolls his blue eyes at her but nods his head in agreement. "Sure, I'll watch 'em, I'm not doing anything anyways. Come sit, I have a chessboard over there if you girls want to play." With a pat on the shoulder our guardian leaves us alone with the blond man.

"So where's Mister Mustang?" Leigh asks as she gets the chessboard. I sit on the edge of Havoc's bed by his knees and watch his eyes darken.

"He's been released, his wounds weren't that sever."

"And you?" Leigh has her back turned so she doesn't see Havoc's fists clench the sheets around his waist.

"I can't feel my legs." My eyes widen. "I can't walk." My hand reaches out and I touch the back of his hand. "Oh don't feel bad sweetie. I'll be fine. Bring that board over here." Havoc stretches out his hands and he sets the board up on his lap. "Who wants to play first?"

Leigh and I glance at each other but I reach out and move a pawn starting the game. Even with the two of us Havoc outsmarts us and puts us in Checkmate too easy. I lose track of how many games we play but each game is the same, Havoc wins. Eventually Anabelle races into the room, eyes wide, "Havoc," she breaths.

"What?" We all sense the urgency in her voice.

"You're staying here aren't you?"

"Yes?"

"Everyone else has been transferred. Falman to the north. Fuery to the south. Breda to the west. Hawkeye… she's King Bradley's assistant."

Havoc stiffens beside me, from where I'd curled into his side. "What?"

"Everyone's leaving. I'm staying though…. Mustang and I are staying… And you're…"

"Retiring." Havoc fills in.

"Something's up." Anabelle breathes. "Nothi-"

"Shh." Havoc smiles. "I think it's time for you girls to head home." His warm hand presses into my back as he grins at me and then to Leigh. "Don't be strangers now." The three of us exit the infirmary side by side.

.-.

At lunch each day Anabelle comes home and brings us to the base so we can sit with Havoc and talk and play chess. It's exactly what we'd be doing at home only we're not at home. Leigh even brings in the board game we brought so we can all play. Turns out Havoc is a really nice guy, he smells like smoke and every now and then he lights a cigarette but that's the only downfall I've noticed. He's really honest with us, answering questions we have about the military, what it's like, ranks, and anything else our minds can come up with.

"Hey, Havoc?" Leigh asks as she moves her piece on the board.

"You can call me Jean you know." Havoc blows smoke over his shoulder and sticks the little white stick back into his mouth.

"Being in the military… could you balance life? I mean." Leigh looks up at me. "Anabelle's always working… and we never do anything… is there a balance?"

"Depends on how focused you are. Major Peters is focused on her work, I was more laid back… Colonel Mustang is a laid back guy. You can balance it." He smiles.

Leigh and I look at each other before turning back to the game. Havoc exhales and the smell of smoke surrounds us, it's become normal, like the smell of coffee in the morning. Some of the guys would smoke when we lived with Greed… Greed smoked sometimes and Dolcetto smoked a pipe that smelled really herbal.

Anabelle comes to retrieve us, early, and we walk down the halls together. As we walk we pass by Mustang who gives us all award-winning smiles and continues on his way. Both the blond and the brunette sigh deeply and I can't help but think he _is_ attractive but he's like 30 and that's really old, then again Greed looked like he was that old… even though he's like a hundred years old or something. I meant to ask Greed what it was like to be that old, to watch all your friends grow old and pass away but he passed away before I could ask him. With a sigh I decide I need to stop thinking about Greed, it only makes my heart hurt.

Instead of going home we all go out shopping for groceries. Balancing three bags is difficult, especially knowing one of them has fragile eggs inside but I manage long enough for us to get home so I can set the stuff onto the table. While Leigh and I put the groceries away Anabelle starts to cook an early supper.

"Oh shoot." Leigh snaps her fingers.

"What?" We both ask.

"I left my board game with Havoc."

"You'll see him tomorrow." The State Alchemist dismisses the worry. I pout, usually Leigh and I play when we get home so we can get better and beat Havoc for once. I guess we'll go to the roof and watch the stars tonight.

After supper that's exactly what the three of us do. We make hot chocolate and sit on the roof on our backs watching the sky go from pink to red to purple to blue to black. The colors are pretty and it reminds me of early morning when Leigh and I were on the run. How long ago that seemed now.

The sky starts to lighten and I realize I never went to sleep. All night my brain replayed the memories I had. Working with Josh. Finding Anabelle. Spending time with Greed. Learning to use a knife from Martel. And the few distant memories I had of my parents. I try not to think of my parents because when I do all I see is that woman with the full lips and odd colored eyes smirking down at me. I touch my stomach, the scar is now just a faint line, what should be a distant memory but it now haunts me.

Being the responsible one, I shake Anabelle and Leigh awake and we all head inside to start our mornings off. Coffee, bathroom, work/chores.

.-.

One day as we head home from the infirmary we pass by a tall busty woman with long blond hair and piercing blue eyes. Anabelle salutes and the lady looks at her before her blue eyes stare deep into mine and then Leigh's. Her shoulders straighten even more and she walks off. The second she leaves Anabelle drops her hand and sighs. "That was General Armstrong."

"From Briggs?" I gasp, Havoc had informed us a lot about the military.

"Yes." Anabelle falls incredibly quiet until we arrive home. "Something big is happening. I heard that General Raven went missing when he went to Briggs… the Elrics are there causing some havoc… and now General Armstrong is here?"

"Speaking of havoc." Leigh holds out the game board. "Havoc said you should play with us sometime."

Anabelle smiles and opens the board to find a series of small strips of paper with a letter and some numbers on each strip. We put all the pieces together, it spelled out Mustang and had a series of numbers. A telephone number.

"I'll be back." The military woman writes down the numbers before running out the door. Leigh and I glance at each other before we too run out the door. We follow the blond down the road to a telephone booth where we all crowd inside as she dials the number. We all hold our breath as the phone rings and rings again.

"I knew you'd call." A smooth voice says over the phone.

"Of course." Anabelle replies smugly.

"Tomorrow, meet me at Gabel's Café at 3pm. We have a lot to discuss." And just like that the connection ended. The three of us all looked at each other curious.

"Well then." I say unsure of what else to say. Leigh laughs and Anabelle shakes her head before we walk away from the telephone booth. Tomorrow's about to be an adventure because if I wasn't mistaken that was Roy Mustang.

.-.

Sure enough it was Mustang, he sat at a table outside the little café, when we walk up he smiles and offers each of us a small bouquet of flowers. "To my lovely ladies." We sit across from him and Anabelle clears her throat. "Let's go for a drive." The black haired man offers his hand to us Leigh takes it and he leads us to a black car. Anabelle slides into the passenger seat with Leigh and I in the back.

The second Mustang starts the car the blond turns to him. "What's going on?"

Mustang pauses for a moment as he starts to drive. "King Bradley is a homunculus. You know what that is right?" He glances in the rear view mirror. I nod my head, it's an artificial human basically… wait… King Bradley.

"You're not serious!"

"I am." Mustang says slowly. "There are seven homunculus, each given the name of the seven deadly sins," Leigh and I glance to each other, "they're working with a man they call Father… they're trying to turn the entire country into a transmutation circle." Anabelle gasps. "Yes. Bradley has sent away all my men because they know these secrets… this is why I kept you from this…" Mustang looks sideways at the girl beside him. "I need you to be oblivious because if you're not you'll be taken. Same for you two." Mustang continues to talk about how he _really_ got injured, about a woman named Lust who had freaky claws, about the homunculus up north and how the higher ranking officers are all aware of the Furër's identity and are after a piece of immortality. My stomach twists with the realization that everything in this country has been a lie…

"Mister…" I tap Mustang's shoulder, "can you tell me more about Lust? The homunculus."

"Like what kiddo?"

"What does she look like?"

"Big boobs, curvy, long black hair, full lips…" He starts to trail off until Anabelle smacks the back of his head.

My heart thumps. Lust, a homunculus, tried to kill me and succeeded in killing my parents. But why? Where my parents apart of something greater? Lust did say I saw too much. In the backseat of Mustang's car I bite my lip to keep from crying and I squeeze my hands together to focus. Is Lust still after me? Am I endangering all my friends? And what exactly to I know but can't remember?


	8. Chapter 8

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

Leigh and I end up on the roof early for once. We sit side by side and point out the roofs of houses we now know. One day, before lunch, we took it upon ourselves to hunt down each house and stalk the people on the inside. People are strange and I'm not talking about Leigh and I; there's a man in a big blue house that has wall to wall books inside, and he has a billion cats crawling around in there too, there's also this woman who has all kinds of wigs and crazy masks inside her house and she's always dressing in strange costumes, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

"Hey." I slap Leigh's arm as I notice a figure running along the rooftops. "Who's that?"

"I dunno but they're running from King Bradley's house."

"That looks like Ling…" I murmur as the figure gets closer with a long ponytail flapping behind them, heading towards the woods on the outskirts of town. "C'mon." I jump to my feet and pull Leigh up with me.

"What about Anabelle?"

I touch the transmutation circle said woman sowed into a brown glove and touch the rooftop before running forward. She's smart enough to find the message, besides we won't be gone long. A three foot gap is between me and the next roof. I take a deep breath, run, and jump. For a moment I feel like I'm flying, lifeless, and then I'm back on solid ground. Leigh lands beside me and we keep running. If that figure, Ling?, can do it so can we. Thankfully the farther we get from the center of the city the shorter the houses get which makes finding out way to solid ground easier. I grab onto a pipe and slide down with Leigh right behind, in this case above, me. Then we dash into the woods, thankfully the person causes a lot of noise and is relatively easy to follow, for a while that is.

"Where'd he go?" Leigh whispers as we wade through waist deep bushes hunting for a mystery man. "And please tell me _why_ we left in the first place."

I thump my heart, "Something told me to. Sorry I'm spontaneous." Leigh shushes me as we come upon a dilapidated building with a small light coming from inside. We hide behind some bushes as close as possible and listen. There's two young voices and two deep voices coming from inside.

"Ling." Leigh whispers. "Why do we keep running into him?"

"Fate." I whisper back as I peer through some leaves trying to listen in. Suddenly there are three deeper voices and only one younger voice. My ears strain to hear Ling's voice but instead I hear a voice I hadn't heard in a _long_ time. A figure stands in the doorway, silhouetted by the light, they're tall, with a long jacket and long hair. The figure laughs and a shudder runs down my spine. No. It can't be. My heart starts to thump as the figure walks out of the house and close enough I can get a good look.

It's certainly Ling. Black hair in the same style, just a black jacket… but that voice. Leigh and I carefully stalk Ling as he walks back towards Central as much as I want to run up and ask I fear what the consequences will be.

"Ling!" That young voice calls making all three of us turn. The short blond kid I kept running into jogs up to Ling with two beefy looking men behind him.

"I told you kid, the name's Greed." The corners of my vision went black and I think my heart stopped. My feet carry me forward on their own will, completely ignoring the blond boy talking to Greed. The kid must have said something and the two beefy men starts to wail on him. Greed hadn't noticed me until I start to tug on his jacket sleeve. He peers down at me with those purple eyes and I feel tears form in my eyes.

"Greed." I whisper.

"Ah? Do I know you?"

"Greed! You have to remember me!" My hands grab at his jacket. "You saved my life and then… and then you died! Why are you here? And why are you in Ling's body? Why?" Tears drip down from my cheeks. Greed's alive. He may not be in his body but he's here! He's alive. Oh Greed.

"Avis." He says my name softly and I hug him tightly. "Hey, let go kid." His hands press into my shoulders trying to pry me off but I refuse to budge, I lock my arms around his chest and cry. "Kid. You're cramping my style." He says gently.

"Why!" I cry. "Why did you leave us?" Bushes crackle and I know Leigh revealed herself but I can't pull myself to leave Greed. He's alive. I don't care how or why.

Greed sighs and his hands squeeze my shoulders. "I didn't want you guys to die too. Obviously I don't die for good… but Martel… and Dolcetto… and Roa… they're not coming back." Leigh lets out a sound, she was really close to the others.

"Who are you girls?" That kid asks and I peer over Greed's shoulder at the short kid. Leigh tugs on Greed's jacket and he puts an arm around her shoulder.

"These are my girls." Greed says. "Wherever you two are living you should head back."

"No."

"Avis."

"No."

"Listen to me." Greed gets close to my face and I glare back at him. I'm _not_ about to lose him a second time. "Some real dangerous stuff is going to happen and I'd rather not risk you guys lives again."

"No you listen." Leigh speaks up. "We've been living with a woman in the military for some time now, we know _everything_, all of it, Father, what you are, everything. We're not afraid Greed. Besides, from the looks of it you guys are all on the run and _we're_ not. We can be useful." Thank God for Leigh and her ability to keep her head on straight while I lose myself to emotions.

Greed sighs deeply, "You're as stubborn as ever Leigh. Fine. Go tell this woman you're living with you'll be heading out." Leigh and I look at one another before she nods and heads back to town. "Kid, aren't you going with her?"

"No." I fold my arms. "You'd probably up and leave us. Now you can't." I resist the urge to hug him again and settle for holding the sleeve of his jacket.

"As touching as this was, who the hell are you two and what makes you think you can come with us?" The blond kid glares at me, sad as it is, he's shorter than me and I'm just barely above average height for my age.

"They're coming because _I_ said it was ok and last time I checked, you made me in charge." Greed uses his authority with a smirk. "I knew these girls when I was the other Greed. Avis and Leigh. I kicked 'em out just before Wrath came and killed everyone."

There's an awkward silence as we wait, I tug on Greed's sleeve and he looks down at me and raises an eyebrow. "Why are you in Ling's body?"

He smirks, "The kid gave his body to me."

"Is he still inside?" I poke his chest.

"Yea he is and he's a pain in the ass." Greed rubs the back of his head before smiling down at me. "It's good to see ya kid."

"Is Greed going soft?" The blond scoffs.

"Hell no." Greed growls. "I thought these kids were dead by now," I pout at the lack of faith he has in us, "I'm happy to see they're still breathing."

"You're more human than I thought." The kid murmurs.

I pick up Greed's left hand and trace the tattoo there, why did it transfer over to Ling's body? For a moment Greed allows it to continue before he pulls his hand from mine and looks over his shoulder as Leigh runs up with a big backpack on her shoulder. She wheezes from the weight and the two beefy men take the backpack from her quickly.

"Anabelle says good luck." Leigh smiles up at us. "She told us if anyone asks we're visiting family. She wants us to write and call her as often as possible, even if we don't have anything because she may. If we stop anywhere for a while she wants to know."

I nod my head and turn to the others. "Since Leigh's here now, who are you?"

"I'm Edward Elric." The blond points to himself with a large grin.

Leigh and I look at each other before she asks, "_You're _Edward Elric? The youngest State Alchemist?" He nods proudly and I smile, this is the kid Anabelle despises? "Wow."

"I'm Darius and this is Heinkel." One of the beefy men says, I can't tell who's who though. "You got a lot of supplies. Thanks for that since this one ate all our food." He jerks his thumb at Greed.

"It wasn't me it was the idiot prince!" Greed snaps, "Alright, let's head out."

"Where are we going?" Leigh asks.

"The Promised Day is in the spring… we have to regroup."

"Let's go east. Nobody will find us out there." Ed says.

And just like that Leigh and I are homeless again. The six of us start walking in the middle of the night. Leigh hands me a smaller backpack that I sling over my shoulder, inside I can feel the squishiness of our clothes and a book. We'll be fine.

"Hey," Greed says, "what happened after I, ya know, left?"

"We were homeless." I say solidly.

"We went to Rush Valley and met Josh." Leigh says more accurately, "We worked with him for a while and met Anabelle… then his house burned down."

"And we were homeless." I deadpan.

"We went to Central and met up with Anabelle and we've been living with her ever since."

"And now we're homeless again." I smirk at Greed who rolls his eyes.

"You said-" He starts.

"I know." I cut him off.

"Can you two fight?" Ed asks suddenly.

"We can use alchemy… we've never really fought before." Leigh murmurs.

"Then we're going to train you." Ed says.

Leigh and I exchange looks but keep quiet nonetheless. Anabelle has said she was going to teach us but she never got around to it. We stick close to each other and close to Greed but he doesn't seem to mind as we walk. Night grows longer and we keep walking, I try to distract myself by counting the number of trees directly on my left, but what counts as "directly" its not like they're in perfect lines. I give up soon after starting my game, especially since the moon is our only light and it's hard to see very far ahead of us.

"Here's good." Ed says suddenly looking to another abandoned building. "We can stay here for the night." Everyone shuffles inside and Leigh and I sit in the corner together as the men unpack their supplies; a large blanket, a sleeping bag, a big winter jacket, and some food. The big blond man throws us the blanket and a can of food and smiles, "Eat up kids."

I wind the blanket around us as Leigh opens the canned food. "I wonder if Anabelle went to the roof or not." I murmur.

"I dunno." Leigh asks as we slide our fingers into the cool mush inside. It wasn't the worst thing in the world but it certainly wasn't a gourmet meal. We watch the four men sit near the window so the moonlight shines down on a map. They chatter about where we should head and make pointing gestures at marks on the map. I close my eyes and feel Leigh put her head on my shoulder, in turn I drop my head back against the wall and try to get comfortable. The murmurings stop and someone settles beside me, I drop my head onto their shoulder without looking. After a moment I lift the corner of the blanket and Greed shimmies over and under the blanket.

"I've missed you so much." I murmur.

"Sorry kid." Greed whispers. "Get some rest."

.-.

A/N: I have plans to write a short chapter story following Anabelle since Avis is no longer with her. Happy Friday the 13th


	9. Chapter 9

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

"Wakey wakey!" A deep voice says before the warmth surrounding me is suddenly ripped away. I groan and curl into a ball, Leigh's hands claw at my jacket before I open my eyes to find the brown haired man, Darius?, smiling at us. "Good morning sunshines!" I groan again and rub my head. Sun is starting to shine through the window and I shake Leigh until she opens her eyes. My fingers run through my hair as I watch the man, I'm going to call him Darius and the other Heinkel, I hope I'm right, put away the blanket. No breakfast, not that I'm hungry for another mush meal.

"Ready?" Ed enters the room with a smile on his face. We all sit up, I yawn as we head outside. Sunshine hurts my eyes and I blink until I can see normally. For the longest time we walk, I keep having flashbacks of when Leigh and I traveled to Rush Valley. Walking makes my thighs hurt and my feet ache and my back gets a kink in it. We keep walking. The sun gets high in the sky before Ed turns to us and smiles. "Alright, lesson one!" He rushes forward and prepares to punch Leigh, her hands instantly jump up to block it. "Good. Let's go!" He continues to punch and kick at my sister until I jump forward, wrapping my arms around his arm and knock him off balance.

Greed whistles and I look to him, he does a "come here" motion and says, "Let them fight. You're going to train with me... Why don't you two see if you can find any wood or food?" He says to the two men who nod and head off into the woods leaving us to spar. Leigh and Ed make the occasional noise as the sound of flesh on flesh fills my ears. I don't want to fight the dark haired man but he gives me no choice when he runs forward and tries to kick at my head. I duck down and hop back.

For a while we go back and forth, punch, block, kick, block, duck, repeat. Greed punches, I swipe his fist to the side and kick his side hard only to come in contact with some incredibly solid surface. My shin aches and I jump back wincing. Greed doesn't seem to notice as he comes at me again, he kicks and I block with my forearms, it hurts. I shove his leg away and punch forward. He catches it easily and pulls me close to him, pulling me off balance before dropping me to the ground.

"Good job kiddo." Greed says as he holds his hand down to me. I grab it and he pulls me to my feet. "Decent instincts, you'll need to work on your form." He drapes his arm over my shoulder, no longer does he tower over me, he looks my age, but his attitude hasn't changed at all, my heart thumps inside my chest and I suck in air. Leigh and Ed are still fighting, back and forth, Leigh doesn't move as much as Ed does, her feet stay planted in one spot mostly. Then again, she uses earth for her alchemy, it makes sense if you think about it.

The two men show up with an armful of twigs and berries, Heinkel has a rabbit and a squirrel in his big hands too. I shiver, I know where food comes from but… Heinkel skins the animals and Darius starts a fire. Greed brings me over to it and lets me sit as he stands behind me watching. Heinkel, noticing my arrival, takes his time gutting the animal, showing me how he does it. The blood and guts make my insides twist and I make a face. The men chuckle and I glare at them. The rabbit and squirrel, skinned and gutted, are stuffed on sticks and put near the growing fire to cook.

"Good, you have to learn to move around more." Ed compliments Leigh as they settle around the small fire.

"But I don't want to." Leigh says back. "I like the earth."

"You did say you guys were alchemists, can you show us?" Ed asks.

My blue eyes meet Leigh's green eyes before she touches the ground in front of her, a tiny figurine appeared made out of clay. I touch the back of my gloved hand and I feel the water around us, when I hold out my hand I will the water to come together into a small ball in my palm. The blond hums his approval and I disperse the water back into the air.

"I didn't know you knew alchemy." Greed settles beside me, leaning back on his hands. "Well I knew you did Leigh, I still despise you for the dent in my nightstand." Leigh giggles but the black haired man grunts and turns to me, "Does this mean you know more about your past?"

I nod my head, "I think a homunculus like you killed my Mom and Dad… Lust." There was a collective gasp from the men. "I remember her hurting Mom… Daddy told me to run… and she caught me…" I touch my stomach and Greed nods, "Daddy saved me and then I found you." I murmur softly, my eyes finding some point to look at in the fire.

An awkward silence falls over until Darius picks up the rabbit and squirrel before cutting them into equal sections to hand out. I look at the crisped rabbit leg I was given before starting to nibble on it. It tasted different but I wouldn't complain. Heinkel kicks out the fire and we head down the road again. My shin hurts from where I kicked Greed and it makes it hard to walk normally.

"What's wrong?" Leigh asks.

"Nothing." I shoo her away.

.-.

Night falls and, without another dilapidated building around, we settle for sitting in a clump of forest. Leigh and Ed start to spar again since she asked. Greed sits beside me and I lean against him as I watch how the two move. Ed's fast and isn't afraid to jump and move. My hands snake around Greed's waist before I close my eyes to sleep, he sighs and drapes his arm over my shoulder. His nails start to pull through my hair, my heart leaps through my chest as I curl closer to him, slowly I start to drift to sleep as the black haired man plays with my hair.

.-.

Someone shakes me awake and I'm pulled to my feet before my eyes are fully aware of what's happening. It's still dark and my body barely moves forward. A hand holds firm to my elbow as I'm pulled forward until my body is awake and I start walking properly.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"So early." Leigh adds.

"It's better we find a more safe place." Ed answers and I yawn hugely and find Leigh's hand to hold onto as we start yet another day of walking.

We stop more often though and work on sparring. Greed's relentless when he fights, just because I didn't know how to fight didn't mean he went easy on me at all. Besides being strong he was also fast, all I could do was block and duck. My arms and shins ache from blocking the attacks but I keep at it. I found small openings to jab at his ribs or kick the back of his knees out. He kicks high and I duck and swipe my foot out knocking him on his ass. He laughs, my stomach twists, and he holds his hand out to me. I grasp it, in Ling's body his hands were much smaller than I was used to. Before I realize what's happened I find myself pinned under Greed with his hand on my throat.

"First rule, don't _ever_ fall for something that stupid." He smirks as he removes his hand from my throat. I frown, but he wanted help and this homunculus never lies. Greed laughs and pulls himself to his feet before pulling me up.

"I thought you didn't fight girls." I smirk.

"I'm not honestly fighting you sweetheart." He smirks back.

"Yea, but you don't fight easy." I rub my arms and frown.

"You would never learn. You have a thick skull." He taps my head.

Ed and Leigh stop their fighting, the blond pats the brunette and I'm surprised to find Leigh and Ed are almost exactly the same height. They chat and Ed begins to demonstrate a few punches and a high kick.

"Greed." I murmur.

"Yes kid?" Greed drapes his arm over my shoulder like he always did.

"First, don't call me a kid since you're a kid now." His eyes twitch. "Second… do you remember one afternoon when I was napping… and you came in and started talking to me? Telling me I'd be successful."

"Uh?"

"Did you kiss me?" I tap my temple.

"I did that more than one afternoon kid." Greed turns, his breath warming the side of my face, "You're special, you're my possession. Though you just fell into my hands, I still care about you."

"Going soft Greed?" Ed appears suddenly beside us and Greed growls a deep growl. The little alchemist just laughs and turns away, "I never thought I'd hear a homunculus compliment a human!" Said homunculus steps forward, fist raised, with a growl growing in the back of his throat. Not wanting a fight, I grab his fist and try to quell the butterflies in my stomach. I was just a possession of Greed's, I wasn't anything _that_ important. My fingers twist themselves around the black haired man's jacket sleeve. Ed and Leigh continue to fight, it's interesting to watch them, he shows her how to punch, takes her wrist and moves it in the way he wants. Her cheeks flush and she attempts to replicate the move he made over and over until he smiles at her, her cheeks darken again and I realize it; she likes him.

I peer at the man beside me from under my bangs, do my cheeks flush like that when I look at you? As if he read my mind purple eyes turn to me and bore into my soul. My face heats up and I get my answer.

.-.

Walking is stupid. We should never have to walk ever again. My legs feel like jelly and there's a constant tingling in my arms. The sun beats down on us, taunting us with warmth, no it's chilly. Stupid winter. I pout and grump as I walk beside Greed who doesn't seem to mind, he looks casual with his hands stuffed into his pant's pockets. In front of me Leigh and Ed talk back and forth very animated, he punches the air, she copies, and they both laugh. In front of them the two beefy men walk with their backs straight, seeming almost indifferent over the whole thing.

Something clicks inside my head and I take out the little cloth of Greed's sheet from under my shirt. The man glances down at me and takes the fabric from my hand. He touches it for a moment, it lost most of it's silkiness and it's starting to fray and lose it's color but he recognizes it. All of a sudden he bursts out laughing, everyone stares at him wide-eyed for a moment before he turns to me. "You're something else kiddo." I can't tell if it's a compliment or an insult. I'll take it as a compliment. Everyone turns back to their own conversations and I watch Greed rub the cloth between his fingers like I used to when I needed to be calmed. As his attention is elsewhere I look at him, I recognize him as Ling but know he's Greed, the two have become one inside my head, yet somehow they're separate people.

Since Leigh is busy talking to Ed, I dare to slide my hand into Greed's spare hand. He tenses but his fingers relax and let mine fit between his. It feels right to hold his hand, Leigh's is small and super warm while Greed's are just right and are colder than my own hand. I find comfort in knowing someone else is nearby, Leigh and I always hold hands when we need to know we're not alone. And we're not, not anymore. I look ahead and realize we may be homeless, again, but we've certainly found a family.

.-.

A/N: Hetalia is sucking up my life at the moment (glad I had a mad writing spree and wrote a few chapters worth of this story) so don't be too surprised if I vanish for longer periods of time.


	10. Chapter 10

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

A/N: This chapter (the one before it and probably the one after it) have been plot fillers. There's the skip to the Promised Day in the anime and I can't just skip all that precious time to grow relationships between people.

.-.

Morning rolls around and Leigh and I are dragged from sleep again. I groan and rub at my eyes as I shuffle beside the little pact we have going. Sleeping on trees is a pain in the ass and I vow never to take a bed for granted ever again.

One of the beefy men talks to Ed and Greed, they point to a map and then back at me and Leigh as we walk side by side. Greed nods his head and says something before he drops back to our sides, his arms loop around our shoulders and he pulls us close. "Are you two ready for your first mission?" The homunculus smiles wide.

"Ah?" Leigh murmurs.

"You're mission is to go into New Optain and gather supplies. Ed will give you some money and a list. All you have to do is buy everything on the list and come back to us. Simple enough?"

"Yes."

"If you get caught or asked any questions-"

"We'll take care of it." I say surely.

Greed grins wide at us.

.-.

It's easy to move about New Optain, it's just like any other city. People wander this way and run that way all trying to get somewhere. Leigh and I keep our eyes open for a market or a general store, but we try not to look _too_ desperate. We've been to three towns and nobody has asked us why we were there, why start now? A tiny yellow "General Store" sign flags me over, me and my partner head inside and start to pluck up various object. Matches, a new canteen, some canned food, some material so Ed can make us a blanket or something, and a few other objects. Arms full of things we check out. The middle aged man behind the counter looks us over.

"You girls going camping?"

"Yessir." Leigh says.

"Are you from around here?"

"No, we're from down east, we're trying to camp all the way around Amestris." I smile. The man seems to buy it, gives us some words of wisdom and a few tricks he knows and lets us go. Blue eyes meet green eyes and we smile, thanks mister, you helped a lot!

When we get back to the area we left our fugitives I'm happy to see they've settled down for lunch, apparently there's a stream nearby since there's six fish cooking by the fire. Heinkel takes the supplies and tells us thanks then it's off to fighting with Greed and Ed. Once my body warms up and I'm ready to fight Greed and Ed suddenly trade places. The blond is much faster than the black haired man and I struggle to keep up.

My hair flies my face and jump away from him to yank my hair up into a ponytail with a piece of string Leigh gave me. Once the nuisance is out of my way I jump forward ready to fight. Ed dives and moves much smoother than I'm used to and he constantly finds weak points to jab at. My ribs ache by the time Darius calls for us to stop and eat.

.-.

For the next few days, we fall into a routine: get up early, walk, stop for lunch, spar, walk, stop for dinner, walk until it's dark, find a place to stop, sleep, repeat. My body aches from the bruises and being stretched and used so much but at the same time I like the satisfaction of knowing I accomplished something. In the morning I wake up and stretch my hands above my head and yawn. My body has gotten use to waking up so early so I just spring to my feet and start walking with the rest of the pack.

I rub at my stomach, the ribs ache. Boots crunch in the leaves and twigs, the only noise in the whole forest it felt. We jump over logs and walk around stones and try to find a clear spot. Leigh makes a sound, grabs Ed's arm, and points to the left of us. There is a small shack just waiting to be used. Ed and Darius scope out the building before giving us a thumbs up. The shack is just that, an empty shelter. It's better than sleeping out in the open though. Darius and Heinkel disappear to find us lunch and Greed takes me outside to a tiny clearing.

I expect him to start fighting but instead he just stands there for a moment. He takes a deep breath before standing behind me and showing me how to punch and block and kick. We're both quiet as I allow my body to be moved under his instructions. He sighs and puts his arms around my waist, his breath warms my neck as he sets his chin down on my shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For all this." He says vaguely. "I miss the chimera." He admits softly.

"Martel and them?" I verify.

"Yea. I should have protected them… I should have saved them."

"I'm sure they knew what they were getting into when they met you Greed."

"Did you?"

"I could assume." I reply, "But even if I did know… I didn't leave." I turn in his grasp and hug him. "They loved you Greed, don't go being sorry, remember them ok?"

"Why are you so smart?" The homunculus jokes as he hides his face into my hair. "Huh? I'm 200 years old and you're what 14?"

"15!"

"Yea, whatever kid, and you're wiser than this old geezer."

"You're not an old geezer." I say happily.

"If only that were true kid." He ruffles my hair and pulls away from me. "We should spar or else that stupid kid is going to start teasing me. The idiot prince is already laughing." Greed points to his chest and I poke the spot.

"So does Ling feel everything and see everything and hear everything?" I ask.

"Hn? Yea I guess he does."

I smile. "It's fate Ling and I keep running into each other."

Greed laughs, "Whatever you say kiddo."

"You don't believe in fate?" I ask as the black haired man starts to walk towards the woods. I trail after him quickly.

"Nope."

"Why not? Nothing's impossible. Why is fate impossible?"

Greed chuckles. "It just is kiddo."

"Well what about us? Don't you think it's more than a coincidence I found you _twice_?" Greed's purple eyes make my stomach twirl. I take his hand and smile. "Whether it was fate or not I'm still happy you were the one who found me."

"Yea me too kid." We stop in front of a large tree, Greed looks up to the leaves and I do the same. Suddenly Greed bursts out laughing and I step back a little frightened. "Ling says you should stop flirting with me since I'm so old… he says you should flirt with him instead." When I flush he laughs again. "Alright, here's your next test, climb this tree." I cock my head to the side at Greed who merely jerks his head towards the tree with a smirk on his lips.

Looking at the tree I begin to frown, the first branch is easily four feet above my head, how am I supposed to get that high? I attempt to look at Greed for advice but he just folds his arms over his chest. I look back to the tree and frown. The tree is a few feet around and the bark has a little ridges and waves to it. My heart starts to hammer as I try and calm myself, then I bolt forward, jump, kick my foot off the tree and lunge for the branch. I miss and fall hard on the ground. Greed doesn't laugh or help me up, his indifference hurts way more than the fall though. Not giving in I stand and brush dirt from my knees and pluck a leaf out of my hair.

This time I walk around the tree searching for anything to help me get up. I find nothing and frown. Wait. Alchemy. I have to be able to do something. My eyes widen and I touch the tree, the black circle on the back of my glove starts to glow and I feel all the water molecules inside the tree and pressing around me. I accumulate the water on the soles of my boots, if I freeze the water the second my feet hit the tree it should stick long enough for me to climb up. My mind empties and focuses on the task I need to accomplish.

I race forward, jump, the molecules on the soles of my feet condense and freeze. Another step, I freeze that and melt the other foot and grab onto the branch. That took too long. Still I made it up and I climb and weave between the branches until I reach the top. Beyond the treetops is flat land, off in the distance I think I can see a city. I smile and listen to the branches rustle until Greed pops up beside me.

"We need to work on that… still you made it up. Good job." He pats my head and I pout, I'm not a dog. A breeze blows by, my hair lifts off my shoulders and it feels nice. Greed grunts and my hair pulls. My brown locks were getting in his face, I giggle and he growls. We watch each other before his purple eyes soften, his hand reaches out and he plucks a leaf from my hair. "You're hair's so long again… if I cut it will you bawl your eyes out again?"

"I didn't bawl my eyes out!" I exclaim.

Greed laughs and pats my shoulder. "Now, let's get down." We start to shimmy and slide our way back down the tree. Greed jumps first and peers up at me as I kneel on the branch far above his head.

"Hey, Greed?"

"What kid?"

"Stop calling me kid…. And promise me you won't die on me and Leigh again." Greed's eyes widen for a moment before he laughs.

"I can't promise anything." He says and I frown. "But I'll try my best ok?"

I nod and jump from the tree without thinking. Suddenly I realize I'm too high up to land normally and safely. My arms flap in vain attempts I'll suddenly be able to fly. Not wanting to see my death I close my eyes and feel the air rush by my body. There's an oomph and I suddenly stop moving. My eyes fly open and Greed glares down at me. "You're such an idiot." He says making me smack his shoulder and kick my feet.

"You're so mean to me." I pout making him laugh.

"If you only knew how _nice_ I was to you." Greed snickers.

"What's that mean?" I tease as Greed sets me down.

"Nothing kid." He ruffles up my hair and I poke his side.

"Don't call me kid." I whine.

"I can't promise anything doll face." We head back to the house side by side in silence. "Hey, k-… doll, can I ask something?"

"Sure."

"Why do you always hold my hand?" He gestures down and I realize, without thinking, I took his hand in mine. Our fingers squeeze together.

"Because I like knowing you're really here…" I stare down at our feet, "And that I'm not alone."

"You're never alone kid." Greed's hand squeezes mine.

"Hey, Greed."

"Yes?"

I didn't have anything to say, if I did the thought was gone before I could make a question. "Never mind." The black haired man chuckles, removes his hand from mine, and stuffs both his hands into his pockets just as we arrive back at base.

"Hey!" Ed calls out, "We need to stop at Risembool… we should be there tomorrow."

"Why?" Greed asks.

Ed points to his arm, the automail one. I offer to look at it, he slides his sleeve up and I touch the metal, it's not iron… it's made of a lighter material, something I'm not used to. I can't fix it, as much as I'd want to Josh never taught us about dealing with other metals. Since I can't do anything I apologize, we'd save a lot of time if I knew how to fix his automail.

"Well," Greed tucks his hands into his pockets, "tomorrow we're heading out… I'd hope to stay here a little longer," Purple eyes glance over at the house, "Alright?" We all nod.

.-.

Morning comes around with someone poking me hard in the side. My eyes open to find dark eyes right in front of my own. I jerk back and hit my head against the wall, my arms fly away from the unusual figure. A lighthearted chuckle sounds in my ears and I gasp. "Ling?" The eyes close and a smile forms on his lips. "Ling, what are you doing here?" I reach my hand out and touch the black clothed chest, yes he's here, where's Greed?

"Greed dropped his guard for a minute. C'mon." He wraps his hand around my wrist and slowly pulls me from the cabin. Nobody else was awake, the sky was light yellow colored. The Xingese prince lead me to the tree Greed and I were at yesterday before he turned to me. "Ok, I want to teach you this. Focus." His fingers press to my temples and I close my eyes. "Can you feel the ground? Feel the energy. Open your mind." I feel the ground under my feet. "Do you sense the presence of the others? Back in the cabin? Do you feel the people under your feet? Do you feel the strong presence to your left?" My mind disappears and I feel what he's talking about. I can feel something. "Think hard. Use the earth to find them." I take deep even breaths and try to hone in on the large presence to my left, as I try to find it my body shudders and I lose focus.

"What was that?" I ask looking to my left, trying to find whatever caused the sensation.

"That would be Father." Ling tells me. "Keep practicing that technique ok? Use the earth to your advantage. Read the Chi of those around you. Everyone has this energy, everything does." Ling's hands wind around my own, holding them close. "Protect yourself, he cares for you too much."

His eyes close for a moment and when they open they're the purple color I'm used to. "Idiot prince." He rubs his head and starts back to the building but stops and turns to me. "Practice that technique ok? As much as I _hate_ that idiot for taking over at least he did something constructive." And just like that he walks back, hands tucked into his pockets.


	11. Chapter 11

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

Greed settles beside me on the floor of our latest shelter. Leigh and Ed are outside working on fighting in low light. I don't need to since I can sense people with the thing that Ling taught me. I want to try it out sometime but it has to be pitch black for it to work. Heinkel and Darius disappeared a while ago, leaving us all on our own, I've been searching every other minute for anybody approaching. Greed and I are silent for a while before I turn towards him and set my head on his shoulder. Even with Ling's body he smells the same, like home. I turn my nose into his black jacket and breath deeply.

"When night falls can we see how good I've gotten at sensing people?"

"Sure kiddo." He says softly.

So we wait until every last person has gone to bed and it's completely dark. I close my eyes and sense, even walls have this energy and using that I can walk my way out of the building.

"Alright!" Ling's voice sounds in the darkness. "Let's try this." I spot his energy quickly, he's steps away, we pause and he runs forward. I lift my hands to block the oncoming punch. Half my mind focuses on his entire body, where his arms and legs are in particular, while the other half relies on instinct to fight back. Ling kicks high, I duck, and kick my foot into his stomach, without the ultimate shield my shin doesn't ache on contact. We fight back in forth in utter darkness, it's easy to sense things in the darkness. Knowing I'm never fully blind is perfect. Eventually I catch his fists in mine. "Thank you so much Ling."

"Hey, no problem. You're good at this." His wrists twist out of my grasp and he gives me a hug. "I'll be back soon ok? Greed doesn't like it when I take over," the prince chuckles, "jealous much?" Just like that the lighthearted personality is gone and hands claw into my hips.

"Damn." He growls. "He needs to keep his mouth shut."

I hug Greed tightly, "What are you jealous about?"

"Something."

"Is that a lie?"

"No. I'm just avoiding your question."

"Please tell me." I murmur softly, is he jealous of Ling? Why?

"It's late. Let's go back." He removes my hands and stumbles away. He trips and swears and I rush to his side.

"I can help." I tell him as he stands up slowly. He grunts but allows me to take his hand and lead him slowly back into the building. We both curl up on the ground, his arms wind around me, holding me close to his chest.

"Hey, why do you let me sleep beside you now? But when we first met… you pushed me out of bed." I snicker at the memory. "That did hurt by the way." "Don't be a baby. I guess…" I don't want to tell him I've grown to like his company, "I'm not sure." Greed laughs softly in my ear, trying not to wake the others up. "Good night Greed."

"Night Avis." He sighs and I let myself drift in the darkness.

.-.

By morning on the nth day we reach Risembool. The air feels warming, more birds have been chirping, and the grass seems to glow. It's officially spring. The baas of sheep greet us as we head to towards the town. Our blond companion explains it's the Annual Sheep Festival and with a deep breath inhaling manure and other farm smells you can tell he's telling the truth. Still, it feels good to smell something other than ground, water, and the smell of all six of us from running and fighting all the time.

Ed stretches his hands above his head as we walk down a dirt road together. We left the cover of the forest a while ago and had been walking by rolling fields. A breeze picks up as Leigh and I run ahead of the group, hands together, giggling in the soft feeling of the wind. A cow in the distance moos and a few people stand off in the distance working the field, I've been trying to sense people without focusing as hard. Ed eventually runs by us towards a house on the top of a small hill, it looks quiet and empty. Darius and Heinkel enter, guns at the ready, and hunt for anyone in the house. A quick scan tells me the place is empty or I'm really bad at sensing things.

"Where are we?" Leigh asks as we walk through the dark house, automail pieces lay about and the whole plays smells like oil and grease. Josh's place smelled like this. I have to leave the room full of half finished automail limbs to find Greed heading to the kitchen, I take his hand in my own and frown.

"What kid?"

"Josh." I murmur as he drags me through the kitchen.

"When people die they die, that's the way of life. As an alchemist you should know that." Purple eyes meet mine and I look to the hardwood floor as we exit the kitchen. Yet again Greed's right, people don't come back, Greed is merely an exception not the rule.

.-.

Leigh and I sit in a corner, Ed disappeared long ago, Greed and the other two were talking in another room. I sigh and wrap my arms around my legs, pulling them to my chest. The brunette beside me does the same. We'll be heading back to Central soon, if that's where Father is that's where we'll be going. Greed had explained Father on one of our late-night-everyone-else-is-asleep conversations. Father is this dude that creates the homunculus, he's been causing all sorts of havoc so he can get a whole lot of power by opening this portal, obviously we're going to stop him before any of that can happen. We have until the Day of Reckoning, or the Promised Day, to prepare ourselves.

A loud scream pierces the silence of the house. I jump to my feet and start up the stairs with Leigh on my heels. A dog starts barking. At the top of the stairs I find two men with guns, Darius and Heinkel behind them with guns, and Greed behind them holding a dog that was barking. Everyone's yelling, Greed looks pissed, Leigh stops beside me and we watch as a woman screams again, "Get out of my room!", and all the men are thrown out of the doorway. Leigh starts up the stairs but I hold her back, whoever this woman is she just threw two beefy men out of a door as if they were pieces of paper. I'd let her cool down. A small elderly woman climbs up the stairs beside us, she gives us a look before continuing on her way.

Eventually we all end up downstairs, the two soldiers, the old woman, a blond girl, and my crew. "So, who are these hooligans you brought with you?" The old woman asks Ed and the blond.

"I'm really sorry about all the chaos earlier," the older of the two soldiers says, "Liam and I are both soldiers from Briggs." Briggs is way up north isn't it? They're a long way from home.

"We've been acting as Miss Winry's bodyguards." So the blond is named Winry, how does Ed know her then?

Said blond woman walks forward to Greed, who stands in front of Leigh and I and looks up at him with large blue eyes. "Hey Ling, you remember me?"

Greed cocks his head to the side, "What? Oh, right, I guess you know this guy." Greed points to himself and smirks. "The name's Greed. Pleasure to meet you." Winry cocks her head to the side and get's a confused look on her face.

The old woman, Pinako Ed said earlier, decides to cook us a meal. While we wait Greed explains everything, who he is, who Leigh and I were, why we were together and our whole life story. Pinako sat us down at a long table and dished out huge plates of food as Greed talked. Everything looked delicious, warm and filling. I dig in, listening to everyone chew and rip at the pieces of meat before them.

"And after all that went down," Greed chews loudly, "these guys signed up to work for me."

"We didn't sign up to work for you." Leigh mutters beside Edward.

Greed ignores her.

"Why did you come to our house?" Winry asks.

"We're trying to get prepared." Greed explains. "His automail is in serious need of maintenance," I frown, "and I need him in peek condition."

"Give him a look-see after dinner. It is your craftsmanship after all, I'm not really comfortable tinkering with it."

"Uh, yea, of course." Winry says.

"I would have fixed it if I could," I say gently, peering at the blond from under my bangs, "but I didn't know what it was made of and I didn't want to touch it."

"It's northern automail." She explains, "Do you know about automail?"

Leigh's green eyes dart to mine. Greed explained we knew him before and just ended up running into him again. "Well yea, for a while we worked in Rush Valley." Winry smiles. Everyone finishes eating and Winry takes Edward upstairs to work on his arm. I start to pick up all the dishes on the table, following the short lady into the kitchen so she can wash them.

"Oh, you don't need to help me dear." She says.

"It's no problem." I tell her as I head back to pick up more plates. Greed's purple eyes watch me as I slide around Heinkel and Darius and the two Briggs men to get their dirty plates. Leigh had left, probably to watch how Winry fixes Ed's automail, she was always more into automail than I was. I help wash and put away the dishes and then Pinako leads me into the bathroom and offers me a hot bath.

My body soaks up the warmth, and dirt drifts off my body as I sink into the water. Baths are a marvelous thing. I rub my hands over my body, bruises of all shapes and colors line my body, fighting is painful, still my body feels stronger. Not wanting to take too much time I scrub my hair free of dirt and leaves and taking note of how long it had grown during my adventures, Leigh had always made sure to cut her hair when it got the slightest length on it.

With my hair sleek down my back I get out of the tub and towel myself off before changing. I rub my hair with the towel as I exit the bathroom, just as I do I overhear a conversation that makes my heart stop. "She's my kind of girl." Greed's voice echoes through the stairwell. As he talks to what I assume is Edward I get the point that he's _not_ talking about me but Winry. Tears fill in my eyes at the idea of Greed liking Winry. "You humans think greed is just for money and power but everyone wants something they don't have." It's true. I want someone who will never be mine. Thumps on the wood tell me Ed left and I stand at the top of the staircase looking down at Greed. His purple eyes find me and the corners of his eyes soften. "Hey babe." My heart clenches tight inside my chest, images of Greed and Winry standing side by side talking and laughing flash by my eyes.

"Hey." I say softly, my heart still hurts and I don't want my voice to give my discomfort away. My boots _thunk_ against the wood as I take each step on the stairs with purpose. Greed leans on the wall and watches me as I approach him, when I get to his side I can't look at him, he likes Winry… am I his kind of girl?

"Hey." His hand touches my shoulder and something breaks inside me. I spin on my heel and slap his cheek. "What the hell!" He shouts grabbing his cheek, his narrow eyes narrowing further into a dark glare.

"Am I your kind of girl?" I demand, hands on my hips.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Am I your kind of girl?" I restate.

"Where the hell did this come from?"

"Do you like Winry?" The black fabric of Greed's jacket bunches easily in my fists. Greed's eyes widen and I push him back into the wall. "I hate you! I hope you know how much I hate you!" Just like that I storm down the stairs and out of the house.

It's close to dusk when I find myself a perch on the corner of the porch. My legs pull close to my chest as I stare out at the rolling hills. Tears pool in the corners of my eyes. He just stood there, looking dumbstruck, he wouldn't answer me, that bastard. I bury my face into my knees and let out a soft sob. After everything we've been through together… after all the times I wished he were near… I almost told him how I felt about him, stupid, stupid, stupid! He never loved me! He doesn't love anyone! I'm just a stupid, pathetic possession.

Hands rest softly on my shoulders and a low voice murmurs, "Avis.", into my ear. My shoulders instinctively jerk back to roll the hands off my shoulders, "Leave me alone." I snap. Sharp nails dig into my shoulders and hold me in place. "Listen to me! You didn't let me explain idiot." My shoulders droop, I owe him that much I suppose. "God." His hand digs into my hair and I can't resist him. "Winry is my _kind_ of girl. I am in no way attracted to her other than the fact that she's greedy."

"But-"

"I'm not done." Greed's hand starts to pull through my damp hair. He doesn't talk anymore as his hand sooths me by petting my hair. I close my eyes, at least he doesn't like her. "You're not my typical type." He says gently and my fists bunch up the fabric of my pants. "You're not a whore, obviously… and you don't seem greedy for anything, not in the way the idiot prince, the kid, and Winry are… you're different." The door opens and Darius and Heinkel exit with Leigh and Ed behind.

"We're heading out." Darius says to us, Leigh's hair is damp telling me she just took a bath too. I stand, ignoring Greed for the moment, and head down the stairs. While I know he doesn't like Winry, he still left how he feels about me up in the air. Back turned, I wipe tears from my eye before I hear Winry behind us, "You're leaving in the middle of the night?"

"We were actually planning on leaving earlier today and then we ran into you." Ed says, "It was good to see you again. And thanks for the tune up Winry." The porch creeks as Ed and Leigh walk down the steps. I turn and the blond woman smiles softly at us, I narrow my eyes and frown. It's not her fault she's greedy for things that will never happen.

"If you happen to run into Hohenheim, you make sure to give him that message from your mother alright?" Pinako calls.

"I will, I will." Ed waves his arms dismissively.

"Wait, Ed I need to-" Winry starts down the stairs towards Edward.

"Lay low until the Promised Day passes… we're going to stop them Winry… and Al and I will be home before you know it." He turns towards her, Leigh frowns, "And have an apple pie waiting for us ok?" The way Ed talks to Winry… it's so close and informal. Winry nods and Greed turns and starts to walk by me, his eyes meet mine and I drop mine to the ground. Just like that, we're walking off in the darkness.

.-.A/N: I hate writing word for word… it's such a pain… but I did it! (and I continue to do it in the next few chapters). Oddly enough this story is coming close to the ending, I find it rather surprising.


	12. Chapter 12

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

A/N: Just a warning, this chapter and probably the next one or two are going to be quite long. It's hard to fight a stopping point in the middle of a giant fight scene -_-

.-.

I force myself to walk between the two hulking men, I can't face Greed and I don't think I could talk to Leigh about it. Instead I sulk like the hurt kid I am. But what do I care? He's just a stupid homunculus. He doesn't believe in love, he just wants sex and women. I knew that! I knew that before I even knew I knew that. Why am I so surprised though?

Night falls, the moon guides our way, not that I'm paying attention, I can sense most every obstacle I'll ever come in contact with. Thanks Ling. Ling isn't bad, I don't know what he wants though, Greed said he was greedy and Greed doesn't lie. Without really thinking I glance over my shoulder to look at Greed, he doesn't seem to notice me. Stupid prick. Gravel and twigs are crushed beneath my boots as I stomp them down with more force than necessary.

Just when I start to question how long we're going to be walking we stop at a small hut, used for hunting or people passing by from the looks of it. Everyone shuffles into the small space and I hide myself in the corner, Leigh settles beside me and quickly falls asleep. Unlike my sister from another life, I can't fall asleep, I just wind my arms around myself and stare out the small window, bits of light shine through, enough for me to make out shapes.

Sleep must have taken over. My dreams are nightmares. Loved ones dying, screaming, being tortured. Red everywhere, on the walls, on their faces, all I can see is red. Slowly the images lose shape and become just blobs of color drifting together until they make a mush colored brown. Something cold touches me and I wake from my nightmares.

"Are you alright?" The deep voice of Darius asks, his hand, suddenly not as cold, grips my shoulder tightly. I nod and attempt to sit up, my body is slick and sticky with sweat and my mouth is dry as well. "You nearly kicked the Dandelion here." He gestures toward Leigh. Dandelion? He passes me a water canteen, allowing me small sips from it. Golden light filters through the window and Heinkel is starting to move around, packing our things up.

Before Greed wakes up (I thought homunculus didn't sleep) I slip out of the cabin and start to wander through the woods. I open my mind and try to sense everything around me, as I do I feel little bubbles of water drifting around me, my eyes fly open but I see nothing but air. Still, when I move my arm around I feel little bits of water. Daddy's words hit me, "Water is everywhere dear." I just had to realize it. I clap my hands together, the black transmutation circle begins to glow, and I control the water molecules around me, making them fly to and fro, and condense on a unsuspecting tree. The water feels nice on my skin, almost like a bath.

Even without my senses hunting for a presence I would have heard him coming, his flats crunch on leaves and twigs causing a lot of noise for dawn. My hair falls off my shoulder when I glance back at the black haired man. He leans himself on a tree and peers at me through his lashes in a dark manner. While I fold my arms over my chest, cancelling my alchemy, I turn to face him. "What's wrong?" He asks.

"Nothing's wrong."

"Don't lie to me." He hisses.

"Get used to it." I snap before stalking by him. As I walk by I half expect Greed to reach out and grab me and demand to know what's wrong but he does nothing. I think that hurt worse.

The rest of the day continues like this, I avoid and ignore Greed as much as possible, it hurts my heart too much to look at him let alone speak to him. Despite his reassuring words I can't _not_ see him with Winry anymore, especially now that he's Ling/Greed because now I think I know how I feel about him. Leigh asks me what's wrong multiple times, I tell her each time to ask later because every time she asks Greed is around. Lunch time I grab Leigh's hand and pull her off to the side, we've lost most of the forest cover and I can feel how antsy the men are to find cover. Senses out making sure nobody get's in hearing range I turn to Leigh.

"I hate Greed." I whisper. "But… I think I love him."

Her bright green eyes widen. "What?"

"I-I… I overheard him say Winry was his type of girl," her eyebrows furrow, "he said it was just how greedy she was… and that he wasn't attracted to her… I kinda slapped him." I admit making Leigh crack a smile. "I'm still angry with him… I keep seeing images of him and Winry." My eyes squeeze shut.

"But he said he didn't like her. And Greed doesn't lie." Leigh bats me lightly on the forehead. "Don't hate him because he likes greedy people. You know it's in his nature. Now… what about loving him?"

I laugh and rub the back of my head, "I dunno… my heart thumps whenever he's around… and I get all queasy… worst of all when he looks directly at me," I point to my eyes, "the corners of my vision goes black and I think I'm going to fall over."

"And that's love?"

I shrug, how was I supposed to know? I've never had a mother figure, except Anabelle but she was never the type to talk about feelings. I just have to go with what my heart tells me… it says to stay close to Greed (and Leigh but that's always constant). My hand slides across my stomach, Greed's never _ever_ done anything bad to me (or Leigh) so why can't I get over this?

"You know you want to trust him." Leigh tells me.

"Yea, enough about me. What about you and Edward?" Her cheeks instantly flush. "Yup. That's all I needed." With that I turn and start to walk away but Leigh's warm hand wraps around my wrist.

"Wait! What should I do? I mean… I mean… I get all flustered and say really stupid things to him sometimes…"

"Just talk to him like you would to Greed or anybody else." I shrug not really knowing what I was talking about, I don't know how to express love so how can I tell someone else how to express love?

.-.

Night falls and I haven't found the right moment to talk to Greed. Every time he looked my way my heart clenched and my mouth glued itself shut. After supper, one of the canned meals, I wind my hand into Greed's and bring him away from the little clearing we've decided to settle in.

"Came to your senses did you?" Greed snickers and I punch his chest as hard as I can; I'm sure it hurt me more than it hurt him. "What?"

"I don't know." I frown, "Listen… I…. do you not like Winry?"

"Of course I don't." Greed says, walking away to find a tree to lean against, "Is this why you've been so pissy with me?"

"I have not been pissy!" I stomp my foot.

The homunculus quirks an eyebrow and smirks. "Whatever you say doll-face."

I pout and stare at my feet, "Greed?"

"What?"

"I want your honest opinion…"

"You know I never lie." He sounds a little miffed.

"What do you think of me?" I peer at him through my bangs. He watches me for a moment before his hand reaches out to push my bangs behind my ears. A frown forms on my face and is mirrored on his.

"Kid… you're special. I don't know how many times I can tell you that." He says gently. "Can I cut your hair?" He's trying to get my off topic and I let him with the nod of my head. I turn and Greed's hands sift through my hair, undoing the knots with caution. As he works, I look at the brown dirt under my feet. The sound of my hair being cut draws me back. Brown strands settle around my feet as Greed bends my head forward to cut my hair. He works quickly and cuts my hair a few inches before snipping my bangs a little. "Better." He ruffles my hair and brushes my shoulders, stray hairs drift down around me.

Special. Is that special in a good way or a bad way? Greed purple eyes bore into mine but I can't smile at him, he still hasn't answered my question. Before I can ask again he starts to walk away. I have no choice but to follow him back to the camp wondering if he liked me or if I was just another possession.

.-.

The Promised Day is tomorrow.

Birds chirp and chatter happily around us. Leigh giggles as she runs ahead of us, nature is back to it's perfect state. I smile too, the warm breeze feels nice on my skin. We're close to Central, we've been wandering around and preparing ourselves, training our minds and bodies ever since we knew what we had to do. Thanks to Ling I can sense people's Chi without even thinking about it, my mind is constantly searching and sensing without me needing to tell it to. I have a feeling it'll come in handy. Ed and Greed taught us to fight, and with the help of Darius and Heinkel Leigh and I know how to defend ourselves against just about anyone. We're prepared for anything that'll be thrown at us.

As we enter Kanama, a slum near Central, a strange sensation makes my head tingle. I've been feeling a strong presence for a while but it's certainly coming from here. As we walk through the slums I notice people staring at us, watching us, we're probably an unusual sight. A blond haired man stops in front of us and turns slowly. He's the source of this powerful energy! I slink closer to Greed just as Ed reaches out and punches the man, hard in the face. Apparently they know each other?

.-.

My body shudders, my hands shake as I try to hold them steady. Hohenheim, the man, is Ed's father… but he's more than that, he's a Philosopher's Stone. Ed explained what a Philosopher's Stone when he told us his life story; a stone made from human lives. If this man was a Philosopher's Stone… his presence dominates my body and I can't help but shake despite hearing the softness in his voice. Ed's body shakes just as bad as mine does, his for another reason though. He just learned his father is the sole object he's spent his whole life searching for. The night has fallen and we all sit around a small fire staring longingly into it.

Mr. Hohenheim mentions Alphonse, Edward's brother. Ed jumps, "You've told Al about this?"

"I did, I'm sure he has his own thoughts on the matter but he accepted it nonetheless." The old man doesn't look up from the fire. Calling him old is kind of an understatement, according to his story he was a slave and learned alchemy from Father basically. He was alive when Xerxes was around, he watched the city fall and here he stands before us looking just old enough to be my father. Hohenheim looks to his son, "If you want to use me to get your bodies back… you can."

Ed immediately jumps to his feet, "Are you crazy?" He said he and Al refuse to use a Philosopher's Stone to being their bodies back. He doesn't think its right to use other people's souls to bring them back to normal. "Maybe you are a living Philosopher's Stone but I'm not gonna to sacrifice innocent souls. It's our fault we lost our bodies."

Mr. Hohenheim looks melancholy as he smiles and stares into the fire. "I'm proud my son feels that way." We fall silent for a moment before he speaks again. "There will be a solar eclipse tomorrow… he plans on harnessing it for his scheme." A solar eclipse? Despite the feeling of doom I want to see the eclipse. Leigh breaths deeply beside me.

"An eclipse? So that's his plan?" Ed murmurs.

"Listen Edward," The two blonds look at each other, "He has to be stopped at all costs. I need you to help me."

"Help you?" Ed growls. "Now look here, I'm gonna stop that bearded bastard but I'm not doing it because you want me to help you. Our best chance of beating this guy is to team up and that's the only reason I'm even talking to you right now!" Ed then storms away pissed and the rest of us follow.

"That's fine with me," Hohenheim whispers behind us, "it doesn't matter what your reasons are as long as you'll still fight along side me." I watch as Ed's shoulders droop, Leigh walks to his side slowly.

"Granny asked me," Ed starts, "to give you Mom's final words….. 'Sorry I couldn't keep our promise… but I'm dying first'… So there I told you!" The blond finally spins around and I glance over my shoulder to see his father standing, staring at the sky with tears in his eyes. I wonder how he's feeling… to be immortal and having to watch all your loved ones around you grow old and die.

We end up at some street vendor eating a hot meal, first one in a while. It tastes delicious and I'm too focused on the meal to worry about what the men around me are arguing about. Sounds like they're curious why Ed's so pissed at his father, he's not that bad a man but he's exactly what Ed's devoted his life to searching for. I bite down on my lip on accident and reel back into Greed's shoulder, apparently I can't eat and think at the same time.

Ed buys some bright red cloth, Leigh questions what it's for. He claps his hands and blue transmutation sparks fly as the cloth puffs up and turns into a red cloak. I wrinkle my nose, it seems too flashy for me, and by the sounds of it the other's agree. "It's a pretty good chance this is going to be the last battle we fight," Ed explains, "I want to do it in style." A rock settles in my stomach and I think my supper might come up. He's right. We could all very well die tomorrow. I don't want to die but at the same time I feel the need to do everything I can in order to save those around me.

The six of us walk out of the town, we have to head to Central for tomorrow. Ed tucks his hands behind his head and closes his eyes, "Listen guys, you don't have to tag with me. I'm thinking you'd be better off going your own way before things get to serious."

Everyone pipes up why they want to stay. The chimera like their bodies and don't have anything better do to. Greed doesn't want to tell. And I'm just following Greed. Leigh, she's following me and Ed now.


	13. Chapter 13

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

A strange sensation takes over the inside of my belly. Everyone stops and a tall suit of armor steps out of the forest. "It's Al!" Ed runs to go meet with his brother. The sinking feeling in my stomach doesn't go away. My muscles twitch and my hands start to shake. It's like when we got near Hohenheim only not quite as powerful. Well he is just a soul attached to a suit of armor… maybe his Chi is different. Greed pinches the bridge of his nose beside me and his shoulders hunch up. He's feeling it too, or Ling is I suppose.

Al starts to walk back into the woods. Ed moves to follow. "Ed!" Ling's voice breaks the silence. "Get away from him! That's not!… He's a!….." Black tentacle-like shadows shoot out from the armor boy, everyone ducks to avoid the sharp points. I push Leigh down and glare at the tall figure, I shouldn't have misjudged myself. The tentacles retract leaving us all stunned.

"Wh-what the hell was that!" Ed cries as he starts to get back to his feet. I growl under my breath.

"I see that you're working with them now… Huh Greed?" A strange childish voice comes from the suit of armor as black wisps evaporate from various cracks in the armor. The armor moves stiffly as it looks over its shoulder at us and starts to walk towards us. "How pathetic that you share you consciousness with a human…" Suddenly several sharp eyes of different sizes appear from around the helmet of the armor. There's something crazy inside the boy. "You couldn't be any weaker!" I push Leigh behind me as quietly as I could, she stands strong though, not moving.

We watch as the shadow tentacles leak out of the cracks, eyes glaring at us. The armor creaks loudly as it's moved how the creature wills it to. Greed seems to be having a headache, probably Ling trying to take over, as he explains the creature isn't Al but rather Pride, his _oldest_ brother. He's a homunculus then.

"So, you've made up your mind to betray us no matter what Greed?" Pride says, "Which makes you nothing more than an annoyance to us at this point."

"Damn it. How did you even know I was here?"

"How dare you disguise yourself as my brother!" Ed yells.

"Who said this was a disguise?" Pride asks as the tentacles lift the head off the suit of armor and lean forward to reveal a red tattoo on the inside of the armor. "This is, without a doubt, your brother's actual body." They've captured Al? How? Leigh makes a soft gasp from beside me.

"You bastard!"

"First things first. I need to deal with Greed." My body stiffens as Pride lowers the head back onto the armor, he's not going to take _my_ Greed. "Now Fullmetal Alchemist if you would be so kind as to come with me." Tentacles start to snake along the ground towards us. Fear and adrenaline race through my body, I can hear my heart pumping inside my chest.

"Heinkel, you guys should run for cover." Ed murmurs only to turn and find both Heinkel and Darius are hiding behind a tree. "What the! You guys don't waste any time."

"Avis… Leigh…" Greed says darkly.

"I'm not leaving you." I growl despite the horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Go. Now." Greed hisses. When neither of us move Greed turns and grabs us, dragging us into the woods. Behind him Pride releases huge shadows at Ed that pierce the earth as he dodges. A huge rock wall appears in front of Ed but the homunculus just slices through it. The sharp objects go after Greed who ducks and dodges. They bounce off the ground and nearly slice through his neck but the Ultimate Shield made it just in time. When the tentacles start to wind around Greed's body, holding him still, I start to rush forward only to have Leigh hold me back.

"This thing will kill us!" She pleads with me.

"But I can't stand by and watch him die again!" I try and pull my arm free. I watch as the tentacles spread out and move in on Ed. He smiles and suddenly slams his hands down to the ground. There's a lot of blue electricity and everything is dark. Completely and utterly dark. Leigh's hands dig into mine, unlike me she can't sense the trees around us, I steady myself against a nearby tree and reach out with my mind. Good thinking Ed, you can't make shadows without light. Ed doesn't move, Al's body stays in place, and Greed shuffles towards Darius and Heinkel. Their voices murmur over to us, they're talking about Pride. I can sense something inside the forest that has to be the real Pride. Heinkel moves off into the woods, he's mixed with a lion so he should have no problem seeing in the dark. I slide my hand into Leigh's as I try to figure out what to do. The sounds of Heinkel's fight sounds so creepy through the darkness.

Darius moves to Ed and I take Leigh and lead her through the woods towards Greed. She can't see the stumps and branches and jumps whenever one touches her. My hand squeezes tight with hers as we find Greed. I touch his shoulder and whisper a hello, I think I scared the crap out of him by the way he jumped. As we stand there I hear the blond and the other chimera approach, they make a lot more noise than we did, they can't see at all in this darkness.

That sinking feeling starts to grow and my hands begin to shake. There's something else out there. "Get down now!" Darius' hands cover my whole head as he throws all four of us to the ground. Just as we move the air whooshes by and a slobbering sound sounds behind us. Something big is behind us. My insides twist, clearly I need to work on sensing things better. It sounds like a tree falling over and someone smells the air.

"I smell you Fullmetal Alchemist and I smell Greed!"

"Of course he'd bring Gluttony." Greed grunts. Sounds like another homunculus.

"That fat slob?" Ed asks, if the homunculus represent their sins I can only imagine what Gluttony must look like… probably a million pounds.

"That makes sense now I know how Pride managed to track us down. He used Gluttony's sense of smell to follow our scent."

"I also smell three people I've never smelled before… and they smell tasty!" Ew, he wants to eat me? How gross.

Greed calls Darius on him. There's a loud thump. Gluttony fell over. Darius roars and thumps his chest before racing towards the homunculus. He punches him and throws him and at the last second bashes Ed in the stomach instead of Gluttony. Whoops. Leigh trips to his side and helps the blond stand.

"What Ling?" Greed growls beside me, I glance at him, not that I'm able to see anything in the darkness but I can sense his presence easily. Gluttony comes flying towards us, I move just enough that only Greed's arm is bitten off. Red sparks glow as the arm grows back, what it's like to be immortal must be something else. "It's not like I have a choice!" Greed continues his conversation with Ling, "Just don't go trying running off with this body!"

"Just drop it. It was my body to begin with!" Ling's voice is suddenly in place of Greed's, his presence changes and I feel Gluttony coming back. Ling shoves me hard out of the way before his elbow comes down hard on Gluttony's face. Ling jumps in front of me and holds a stance, he chuckles and says, "Thanks," to Greed. Are they friends?

"Ling?" Ed asks.

"That's right?"

Gluttony stands slowly, "Eugh, you're making me mad. I just want to eat but you won't let me eat you and I'm getting hungrier!" The original childish tone in his voice is replaced by an anger. "So I'm just going to have to swallow everything!" A huge presence takes over and my body shudders and shakes. What is that? It's like nothing I've ever felt before.

"I sense something bad." Darius admits. I feel it too, the presence grows and I get a horrible feeling inside my stomach.

"Bad? How bad?" Ed asks.

"It's coming this way." Ling murmurs.

"Huh?" Leigh asks.

"What's coming this way!" Ed sounds desperate.

"I've felt this presence before." Ling ignores Ed's cries. My feet shiver as gwarbling sounds start to fill my ears.

"Will you freaks tell me what the hell you're talking about!" Ed cries and Leigh agrees. "Hello! Normal guy here! I can't see in the dark." Ed you're noisiness isn't helping the situation. Wait, what's that. I turn just in time to feel the air blow by as someone races towards Gluttony. There's _shink_ sounds and the sound of cloth moving. Gluttony lets out cries and shrieks. What the hell? I focus on the presence but it moves too fast for me to read it.

"What happened?" Ed asks.

"Stay down guys." Darius' hand clamps down on my head and forces me to bend at the waist. I push him away and stand beside Ling, I'm capable of seeing in the dark, sort of.

"Is there something else out there?" Leigh murmurs. Of course sweetheart you can hear the sounds.

"I'm not sure… but I think it might. It is." Ling's voice sounds happy. He knows who it is? Can he sense individual people based on their Chi?

"I smell you!" Gluttony calls out. "I know that smell!" There's a _shink_ and it sounds like blood splattering on the ground, Gluttony chokes on what I can only imagine is his own blood. That shink… is that automail? Gluttony glows bright red, regenerating his body, from the light I can make out a figure standing with a shiny automail arm.

"I'm glad to see you're ok. I was wondering when you'd come to find me. Lan Fan." Lan Fan? She turns slowly, wearing her grotesque mask. Wait, she didn't have an automail arm that long ago, it can't be that old… has her wounds heal? She turns back and continues to fight, darkness ensues.

"Would you stop killing me! I don't want to die anymore!" The homunculus shrieks and it sounds like a ton of blood splattering onto the ground. "That _hurt_!"

Ling runs forward, I follow in suit. I can help, maybe just a little. Leigh cries out for me to come back but I keep running. I'm doing this to save your life. Together we run through the woods between the trees, my senses go on high.

"My lord!" Lan Fan calls from behind me.

"We can catch up later! Let's finish him off!" Ling races through the trees. Lan Fan agrees and I sense her moving through the woods.

"Why won't you just let me eat you already! Augh!" Gluttony sounds like he's puking, a shiver runs up my spine.

Ling, probably talking to Greed says, "Well you know… I'm just full of _surprises_!" He kicks the homunculus hard. I jump up behind him and kick in his hard skull. My body instantly searches Gluttony's body, he's human based. That means water. Perfect. I dive back into the woods, sensing where the other two are.

"I don't get it…" Gluttony sounds helpless. "It's so dark here… how… how do you know where I am? You can't see me!" I can't see you but I can sense you. Between the three of us we run through the woods, Gluttony moves and murmurs as he tries to locate where we are. Ling runs forward, he distracts the huge being long enough for Lan Fan to jump in and slice him.

I race forward, clapping my hands to activate my transmutation circle before I jump and plant them on Gluttony's head before using his shoulders to bound off so he can't capture me. There's a loud shriek and the water inside his body turns to a boiling temperature and he fries from the inside out. Even with that small satisfaction I can't stop moving, this thing will continue to regenerate and come back again. Suddenly Ling is at my side, one of his hands slide to my waist and the other press my head into his shoulder. He jumps just as a loud _boom_ explodes behind us. Branches and twigs fly against my body and Ling sets me down. "Thanks." I tell him. I probably would haven't seen that coming- He pulls me into his chest again and another _boom_ goes off.

Lan Fan has some neat moves. Not only is she incredibly fast, so fast I can barely keep up with her presence, she's skilled in hand to hand and has all these nifty tools. Since Ling runs forward I figure the bombs are done. Smoke fills the sky, it clogs my lungs as I run through it. Still, I kick Gluttony in the cheek, knocking him off balance so Lan Fan can come up and slide off his leg.

.-.

A/N: Ah-ha! I found a place to break the story up… this chapter would have been twice as long as my usual chapters… Where I ended is about where the episode ends so I didn't feel it was an ok stopping place.


	14. Chapter 14

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

A/N: Happy February 1st! I was _so_ excited about the first of the month I slipped on some ice and bruised myself pretty badly! :D (*sarcasmsarcasmsarcasm*) Anyways, enjoy!

.-.

I don't know how many times I kicked the homunculus or made an arm blow up by expanding the water rapidly or making the water freeze or boil inside his body. We killed him quite a lot, still he kept getting back up. Finally, my body hurting from all the fast pace motion, Gluttony runs forward crying, "No more! No more!" I feel bad for the childish thing but he tried to eat me! We let him run, not like he can run away. That's when I notice light, a fire has caught, which means Pride has his shadows back! Suddenly there's a bright blast of light, I cover my eyes instantly and crouch to the ground. As I wait the light out I notice that powerful presence has gotten closer, Hohenheim? What's he doing here? Lan Fan lets out a whine from above me. Ling, who didn't seem affected at all stops beside me and looks up to the girl. "Lan fan, what's wrong?" Just like that she races forward, ignoring the prince. "Lan Fan!" Ling cries before he grabs my forearms. "C'mon I'll guide you!" Another bright flash of light makes the two of us pause, only for a minute before Ling is dragging me forward as the light shines through my eyelids.

"My eyes!" Gluttony cries.

"You're pushing your luck!" Pride sounds so pissed as I near the clearing everyone's gathered at. Heinkel looks really wounded, clutching his shoulder, Fu and Leigh are standing beside him, Leigh looks ready to fight glaring at the tiny homunculus. I stand between Ed and Ling, ready to fight as well. Pride turns to Gluttony, "They've really roughed you up."

"Yea, but only cuz Greed and those girls weren't fighting fair!" Inside I snicker. "They were all doing something so they could see me in the dark." And what a nifty trick that something is, to be able to sense people without really trying to.

"Is that so?" Pride turns his large purple eyes to the three of us and observes us. After a moment his shoulders jump and his eyes widen, he's realized something. As he turns he licks his lips. "Gluttony, how many times have they killed you now?"

"I lost count…" Gluttony sticks his finger in his mouth like a child. "But I know it was a lot though." Yes it was.

"They've beaten me up pretty badly as well." Pride touches his face and glares in Ed's general direction. "The way things are going there's a very real chance they might annihilate us." Shadowy hands slither out from the shadows.

"Yea, but that's ok, cuz Father will fix us!" The hands multiply and get closer and closer to Gluttony. I step away, frightened. "No! Please don't do it Pride!" The hands grab at Gluttony and toss him into the air. "Ugh!" One large form appears, multiple eyes and a huge mouth, and bites down on Gluttony, chopping him in half. Said homunculus' head begins to disintegrate. "No, Pride… please don't eat me… it hurts. Ahhh!" I frown as the top half of his body is turned completely to dust. The other half of his body, legs, land with a thud. The shadows reel back before launching forward, digging into his body. It looks like some crazy feeding frenzy. My skin goes numb as I watch Pride devour his own brother.

"He devoured him… one of his own kind!" Ling growls, I glance to him and notice the black growing on his arm, the Ultimate Shield… are Ling and Greed working together now?

A huge black shadow surrounds Pride as he slowly turns to us, eyes and sharp teeth look out from various spots. "This should make things easier. I can practically smell every movement you make…" I swallow hard. "I could do without the ravenous hunger but I suppose I'll just have to sate it." My body shivers, he's going to eat us too? "Oh wait," He sniffs loudly, "I recognize that scent… you're somewhere close by Hohenheim." Yea, what is he doing here anyways? "Tell me something Edward…" Pride hisses the name, "do you think your father would step forward to save you if I chopped off your limbs?" Suddenly large tentacles shoot at Edward who has to jump backwards to avoid being sliced. He bumps into a tree as the last one sticks into the ground just before his feet, said tentacles split in two with one long one racing up the middle of the split tentacles.

"Look out!" Greed yells just as Edward ducks and the tree is bitten in half. Pride then turns his attention to Greed and starts to attack him instead. Greed shoves me out of the way as he backflips away from the tentacles. I dive around the tentacles just as my homunculus jumps into the trees with Lan Fan at his side.

"Young Lord!" She cries.

"Not quite, the name's Greed." I race towards them, I feel saver in the trees than out in the open.

"It's you! Give the prince his body back!" Lan Fan growls.

"Hey!" I shout up at her, because of her "Young Lord" my Greed is back.

"Now why would I want to do something like that?" Greed grins. "Oh boy! Heads up!" I duck instantly as a huge tentacle lunges forward and chops the tree into bits sending Lan Fan and Greed flying. Greed ends up caught in the older homunculus' teeth, I start to run forward to save him, Lan Fan pulls out a small knife thing and looks like she'll help but she gasps and clutches her arms. Her automail hasn't healed, stupid, she's just like Anabelle. She managed to catch herself in a tree, dropping that knife, right at my feet. I pick it up.

A tentacle races towards me and I deflect it with the knife, thank God it worked. Another lunges forward and I deflect it again, they're strong and sharp. One cuts across my shoulder. Leigh lets out a yell, she's fighting Pride off on her own, trying to keep them away from Fu and Heinkel. I lose focus for a split second, Pride moves around the knife and slices into my left shoulder. A shriek escapes my lips, I can't help it. Another black shadow heads straight towards me, I close my eyes. Sorry Leigh I guess I'm dy-

"Move!" Greed wraps his arms around my waist and moves me back into the woods. "Are you ok?" He asks, his hand touching my shoulder. I hiss but nod my head. "Don't die." He warns.

"Same to you!" I yell before getting to my feet, if we're still we're an easier target. Pride doesn't seem to grow tired, he has enough strength to attack all of us at once it seems. Every time I try to get closer to Leigh, since she's having to protect herself and two others with just a little knife, Pride attacks me directly. I can't get close to her. Hot blood drips down my shirt and I wince whenever I'm forced to move my arm wrong. I can still deflect most of his attacks with one hand though. Pride launches three tentacles at me, I jump and dodge as quickly as I can before diving into the trees.

As I crouch on the ground I listen, the sound of Pride's tentacles bouncing off various surfaces fill my ear. Then I hear the familiar sounds of trees being destroyed. He's attacking the trees. We can't hide if there are no- A hand winds around my waist and I'm pulled to the side just as Pride destroys the tree I was just sitting behind. "I told you not to die!" Greed growls as he bounces through the trees, Pride attacking any and every tree in his way.

"Sorry." I whisper.

"I want you to get out of here ok?"

"No!" I yell.

He sets me down and jumps through all the Pride tentacles to jump in front of Fu, Leigh, and Heinkel who appear to be trying to disappear into the woods. "Get out of here!" He demands. Leigh nods her head and they shuffle the injured lion chimera out of the fighting zone.

Soon a huge clearing has been formed. Pride chopped down all the trees. I hide in a tree as the little homunculus throws Ed and Greed, they look beaten down. My arm twinges and I clutch it, the blood seems to have stopped flowing as strongly as before. "Now then, I can see you more clearly without all those trees in the way." The shadows and blackness surround Pride, dominating the area. "There's not much point in trying to hide from me," he turns towards the woods, "I can smell each move you make." Tentacles suddenly appear around me and I freeze, there's no way I can defend myself from all of them.

"Damn it." Greed growls. "Hey, you still breathing over there?" I watch as my homunculus struggles to his knees.

"Does wheezing count?" Ed still manages to give him a thumbs up. I breath deeply, a tentacle slides to my neck, I squeeze my eyes shut. Please tell me Leigh is ok. Please. Please don't let her be feeling this pain.

"This isn't really the time to worry about others, is it Greed? As soft as you've become I wonder how much longer you can survive."

"Shut up you beast." Greed growls, another tentacle winds around my ankle. Oh no… please, I don't want to die.

"What a horrific thing to say to your own brother Greed, honestly. I might have to eat you." Eat my homunculus and I'll kill you myself.

"I promise I won't go down easy… brother."

"Is that so?" Pride smirks, the tentacles suddenly wind around my body and pull me from the trees. I shriek and thrash, "Maybe I'll just have to eat this girl first."

"You hurt her and I'll-"

"You'll what?" Pride cuts him off as I'm pulled closer to the little boy. "Hmm?" A tentacles slices into my cheek, I wince and turn my head. Kill me quick please if you have to kill me. Pride smirks but stops and sniffs the air. He turns, setting me down and drawing all the tentacles close to himself. "Oh, so you've chosen to show yourself." Hohenheim steps out of the woods, Leigh at his side. Leigh run please.

"The hero always waits until the last second to make his move."

"Hero? Interesting," I slink away from Pride as slowly as possible, "you must think you can defeat me."

"No, I'd never think that. I'm not dumb enough to try and fight you." The two stare each other down, the shadows condense even further around Pride, eyes and sharp smiles appearing. The old man steps forward just as Al comes up from behind, running as fast as possible. The suit of armor tries to attack Pride but fails, Pride's tentacles are quick and wrap around the armored boy.

"Are you joking? This was your pathetic plan? You should have run when you had the chance."

"Al no!" Ed tries to run to his brother but Hohenheim and Leigh stop him.

"Huh, it seems as though your son enjoys being hostage." Pride forces said son to kneel, "Either that or he's supremely stupid."

"That's crossing a line Pride. Don't _ever_ mock my son!" Suddenly huge amounts of red light jump across the land. I race backwards, towards Greed, just as large sections of earth start to lift up. Leigh claps her hands and slams them into the ground, I watch as smaller strips of land wind around Pride as Al grabs him. Together they hold him down as the earth lifts and starts to form a sphere.

"Hohenheim!" Pride roars, and in one last ditch effort launches one shadow out to kill the man. The sphere closes, stopping the tentacle mere inches from the man's neck but he never once flinched. My heart races, Hohenheim has some seriously amazing powers. He just made an enormous cage of earth by just stomping his foot.

Beside me Greed stands up, "That's amazing… he actually managed to confine Pride." He snickers before he turns and begins to walk into the woods. I trail after him. Behind us Ed shouts about Al being trapped. We walk into the woods, the fire that gave Pride light has spread, the heat suddenly burns on my skin, especially my arm wound.

Once we're in the cover of the woods Greed takes off, racing through the woods with me at his side. "So Lust is dead. Envy's gone. Gluttony's eaten. Wrath is at Eastern Command. And they have Pride under lockdown." A ledge appears in front of us but Greed doesn't even pause as he leaps off the ledge and onto a small tree branch.

I pause, taking a deep breath before launching myself off the ledge and towards the tree branch. I under estimate and my feet almost miss, Greed's hand shoots out and grabs the front of my shirt, pulling me to his side. "So that means," Greed stares into my eyes, "Sloth and Pops are the only ones watching over Central." I stare into his eyes that narrow for a moment. "Huh? I've told you." To anyone who didn't know about Ling would think Greed is insane for talking to himself. "I'm planning on ruling the entire world." My heart stops. I always knew how greedy he was but… the whole world?


	15. Chapter 15

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

"We can sleep here." Greed murmurs as he leads me into an abandoned warehouse. The strange feeling like people are crawling beneath my feet have been making me shiver. "Are you cold?" Greed presses his hand to my arm, I turn away.

"No, I'm not… I just…" My eyes turn to the ground.

"Yea, they're creeping Ling out too… you need sleep." A strong arm wraps around my shoulders, pulling me to a strong chest. With a sigh I drop into the corner and try and get as comfortable as possible. The floor is hard on my butt and the wall hurts my shoulder when I lean on it. "Kid, you won't get any rest if your uncomfortable." He pulls me into his lap, winding his arms around me, "Better?" I nod my head as I rest it against his shoulder. My eyes close and I listen to a steady heartbeat.

"Is this your heart beat or Ling's?" I whisper.

"Go to bed… Avis." One of Greed's hands slides through my hair as he murmurs soft things into my ear, too deep for me to understand. I close my eyes and wind my hands into his jacket. A horrible feeling has set in my stomach, tomorrow is the Promised Day… tomorrow could be my last day alive… my last day with Greed. "Hey, what are you crying for?" Slowly I touch my face and sure enough my cheeks are wet. "Avis?"

"I don't want tomorrow to come." I hide my face in his chest. "I'm scared I'll lose you. I'm scared you'll die. I'm scared to die."

"Don't be." Greed's hand slide to my hair. "We all have to die at sometime. It's the fact of life."

"But… but don't you want immortality so you'll never die?"

He sighs, "Promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"No matter what happens tomorrow you will not try to bring anyone who dies back… and you will not search for immortality." I pause for a moment. "Promise me Avis." His hands clench in my hair and I nod my head eagerly.

"Yes. Yes I promise."

"Good." He sighs and kisses the top of my head.

"But you gotta promise me something too."

"What's that?"

"Don't die!" I poke his chest and he laughs, his chest rumbles with the laugh. "I'm serious!"

"I can't promise anything." He says gently.

"Then answer me this." I look up to those purple eyes, the corners of my vision blur and I get intoxicated by the smell of him. I rub at my eyes before holding onto his jacket. "I know you care about me… just how much?" I watch the corners of his eyes drop and he looks sad. "You say I'm special but you never explain…" I hold his jacket and close my eyes. "I have to know." If something happens to either of us tomorrow….

Something soft and warm brushes across my lips. My eyes fly open to find purple eyes right in front of me. One of his hands holds my neck and the other cups my cheek. Did he kiss me? His lips brush against mine again. I lean against him and close my eyes, our lips press together and tears fill my eyes. Every time I saw Greed kiss someone it was… more ferocious, but this… this… His lips part and he breaths against my lips. This is gentle… sweet… innocent. I feel tears in my eyes as I part my lips too. His breath his hot against my lips.

"Greed." I whisper.

"Shh." He murmurs back, his eyes close. For the longest time we sit there, breathing back and forth against each other. Our foreheads touch and our noses brush. "I promise I won't die." Carefully I lift my chin up and our lips touch again.

"Greed." I murmur. "I think I-"

"Don't." He cuts me off. "Don't say it."

"I think-."

"Please." His hands tighten around my neck. My eyes close, but he needs to hear what I have to say before it's too late.

"I love you." I say softly. There's a long pause before Greed sighs, his breath almost burning on my face. "What's wrong?" Greed doesn't answer. Seconds before I ask again Greed pulls me tight. His lips press to my temple and they just sit there.

"Go to sleep… please." He whispers so gently.

"But I-"

"Avis." He says deeply.

With a frown I close my eyes and try my hardest to go to sleep. Despite the unsettling part inside my stomach I fall asleep. Greed's fingers twine through my hair and he breaths against my shoulder. His heart thumps fast under my ear, did I embarrass him?

.-.

"Wake up kid… we have to get moving." Greed shakes me awake. I burrow my head into his shoulder, my body cries for more sleep. With a loud groan he rolls me off his lap and onto the hard floor. I grab my head and frown up at the black haired homunculus. "We have to get moving." We climb to the rooftop and begin traveling across them. We're in Central… the last time we were here… I wonder how Anabelle is doing. I wonder where she is… or if she knows all the danger that's supposed to take place today. My eyes turn to the sky, the sun still shines bright but the moon is moving closer. There's not a cloud in the sky… but clouds of smoke. Greed doesn't allow me to stare at the fire for long.

.-.

Before long alarms start going off in side Central. Greed finds a spot near the base as we listen to alarms going off again and again from all over. Soldiers run around, this way and that. "Something big is happening." I murmur.

"I bet some of the military are fighting back… that guy Edward's always talking about." Mustang? Does that mean Anabelle knows? I hope she safe. I look to my feet, the presence feels enormous under my feet, I can practically feel voices screaming in agony. Curling into the wall behind me I wish the voices would just stop, that the presence would just go away.

Time passes by. The more time that passes the stranger I feel. Not only is the sounds of sirens, the cries of men, and the sounds of explosions starting to bother me but I feel weird around Greed. He hasn't said anything about the kisses or my declaration of love. It makes me sad and unsure about everything. As much as I wanted to say something I couldn't find the words. Shivers run up and down my spine as the strange feeling beneath the ground takes over my body forcing thoughts from my head before they form.

"I want everything you could possibly think of." I murmur softly.

"Huh?" Greed looks at me, an eyebrow quirked.

"I want money and power and women… sex, status, and glory." I pause for a moment. "I demand the finer things in life." I don't know why it came to me, it just did. Greed was always saying and he's on my mind right now.

"Those aren't things you want kid." Greed tells me. "That's what _I _want."

"Tell me what I do want then." I tempt, curious to see what he thinks of me.

He looks into my eyes for a moment. "You want this all to stop. You want to have a family and friends who love you dearly. You want everyone to be happy." His hand slides into my hair. "You'll put others first before yourself. You'd die to save someone you love… like Leigh. You want everyone's happiness." We stare at each other, he's right, he's right but he forgot one thing, I want him. I want a family with him, no matter how impossible it really is to have a family with an immortal being. I look away first, back to my boots. But still, I'm amazed at how well he knows me… he's been paying attention ever since we met.

A strange presence appears suddenly from under the ground near Central Command. While it wasn't as strong as the big presence it was still large… no… it's not one person… but many? Many strange people? They feel the same as Greed and Gluttony… But that can't be. Greed's a homunculus… who would create _that_ many homunculi?

Greed suddenly stands beside me, stretching his hands over his head before peering down at me. "We're moving. If things are getting hot around here means it'll be harder to get into Central the longer we wait."

"Why'd we wait so long then?" I ask as I stand, my knees creak with the motion.

The homunculus shrugs, "Wanted to see what would happen. And I was thinking. Now come here." He holds out an arm and I walk into it. His hand grabs my hip tightly before he leaps from the building, halfway through the jump his other hand scoops my knees up. I cling to him as the air rushes by, whipping my hair up and into our faces. We land with a solid thud. I exhale sharply and squirm my legs waiting for him to set me down. "Not yet doll." He tells me, his eyes never leaving their target. "We have to get over _that _first." I look and I do believe my jaw dropped.

Central Base is surrounded by an enormous wall that's surrounded by a moat. How in the hell are we going to get over that? Especially with all the soldiers running around? Greed walks through the crowds with ease.

"Carry me piggy back." I tell him.

"Huh?"

"Piggy back! You'll be able to use your hands."

"Will you be able to hang on?" Yup, he's going to try and jump the wall. When I nod he sets me down and quickly crouches close to the ground. My arms wind around his neck and I lift my legs up. Nails dig into the backs of my knees as he hikes me higher onto his back. For a moment his hands linger there before he takes a deep breath. "Alright." I lock my ankles together at his hips and cling to my homunculus' back for dear life. He races forward, wind makes my eyes tear up, and jumps. Scared for my life, not that I didn't trust Greed, I hide my face in his back. Wind blows in all directions and my body feels like it's floating, this way and that, light and then heavy. Greed's breathing is heavy as his chest rises and falls under my arms. "You're safe."

Slowly my eyes open and my body instantly tenses. We're so high up! In a few short moments Greed managed to slip through all the soldiers and get us a perch high on the base itself. My heart pounds as I peer over Greed's shoulder down, down, down at the soldiers running around. In front of us is, what has to be, the Main Gate. I unlock my ankles and drop them slowly towards the ground.

When my toes touch Greed turns in my grasp so he faces me. "Scared of heights?" He teases.

"If I fall I'd die… of course I'm scared." I tell him with a pout.

He grins for a moment before his face turns serious and he steps forward, our bodies touch. He presses against me until I step backwards, eventually my back comes in contact with the wall, Central is a multi-level place after all. Greed's body leans onto mine. His eyes are dark and look sad before he leans forward and kisses my forehead.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Just worried about you." He murmurs.

"Greed? Worried?"

"You are my possession after all and nobody hurts my possessions." He growls.

"So I'm still a possession?"

"My favorite possession." He leans down and smiles. "Kid, you make me feel like I'm not myself. I act different around you." I've noticed.

Around us smoke rises, sirens wail, soldiers shout and explosions rock the roof beneath our feet. Neither of us care as I lose myself in purple eyes. Slowly those eyes close and a higher pitched giggle escapes his lips.

"Li-" I'm cut off when his lips press to mine. Ling isn't Greed. But Greed and Ling are the same person. Before I can decide to push the boy away he pulls back and grins. "What was that for!" I unwrap my arms from his neck.

"This is _my _body after all." Ling grins, "Since Greed was too preoccupied being all cutesy I took over my body for a minute." He looks out over the city that's slowly turning in on itself. "It's a mess out there huh?"

"Yea." I murmur.

His head spins back to me and he grins, his eyes close hiding the pretty purple color beneath pale lids. "Greed and I will make sure nothing happens to you ok?"

"Only if you promise to take care of Greed."

He nods his head. "I promise. And Xingese never break their promises." I smile. "You're right Greed, she does have soft lips." My face flushes and I look away. Ling laughs for a moment before it turns into a low growl. When I look up Greed glares out at the city. Somehow, even with the same face, it's so easy to tell who's who. They're so vastly different.

"So what are going to do now?" I ask, trying to ignore the fact that Greed and Ling think my lips are soft, what does that mean anyways?

"Wait for the perfect moment." Greed smiles. "I wonder how Pops is dealing with all this." I stare at my feet, the presence is just scary, "Pops" is one scary man.

.-.

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been busy with school, being sick, and just plain not having the time to watch FMA:B and take good notes. I hope Greed wasn't too OOC for anyone, but we know he has a heart and cares for people besides himself.


	16. Chapter 16

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

More explosions shake the ground and I close my eyes to the noise. We wait. Wait, wait, wait. That's all we ever seem to do. I never get to be in the action and for once I'm glad about that because right now I'm so scared. People have to be dead or dying all around. A crackly voice sounds over some intercom. I perk up and listen. Briggs has taken over Operations? They have some General in custody. Briggs men are strong, apparently. Greed grins, clearly licking this turn of events.

Before I can process what's going on my whole body shudders and curls into a ball. Everything sounds like I'm underwater. The presence below. It's enormous… and angry. The earth is disrupted, the flow of energy changes, my body shudders again. What's going on? Something warm grabs my shoulder as I fight through the water and the overpowering feeling of angst until I can breath normally.

"Are you ok?" Greed asks.

"Yea… what… what was that?"

"Ling thinks Hohenheim is down there fighting with Father…" That would make sense, Father and Mr. Hohenheim are technically the strongest people that I've ever come in contact with. They're the only people I can think of that would make my body hurt that bad. Greed's nails dig into my shoulder and his eyes go wide. I feel it too, a homunculus… coming closer. But who? "Wrath." Greed whispers before we turn, sure enough we watch a man, too far away to really call Bradley, walk straight towards the Main Gate. Greed turns to me suddenly. "Avis. I need you to be ready for whatever's going to happen ok? You're going to have to fight. You have Leigh to live for, got it? Don't you dare worry about me and this idiot prince."

I nod my head as the sounds of chaos start to float towards us. Explosions too close for comfort shake my skin as I hug Greed as tightly as possible. This is it. Bradley is getting closer. No longer can we wait and hope this whole deal will just walk by us. Leigh, you'd better make it through this because I'm going to come back to you no matter what happens. "Greed." I wait until his purple eyes find mine and stay. He's getting prepared for this fight. "Before whatever happens happens…. I want to thank you for everything."

"This isn't the time doll."

"There might never be another time." I demand as an explosion sounds far too close behind us. "Thanks for rescuing me and taking care of me and dealing with how crazy I am and teaching me how to fight and being patient with me." Words just spew from my mouth in a continuous sentence. I can't stop. My eyes fill with tears as my mouth keeps moving. "I don't want you to die. I want you to live. I l-"

Greed's mouth covers mind, stopping me from finishing my sentence. "Don't say those words." He growls before pushing away from me. "Now stay back ok?"

I press myself against the wall as Greed settles down on the edge of the wall. The wind blows his hair around and his jacket lifts. From beneath us I can hear Bradley fighting. A group of men call out "Captain!" I can't look over the edge, I don't dare. We're so high up I believe I'd be sick. From up here I can hear two people talking about death and dying with pride.

"How ridiculous," I hear Bradley's voice carry up through the wind, "humans always make a point out of being foolishly stubborn."

"Ah," Greed says loudly, "you got that right. They always get so frantic in the heat of the moment, like it's going to do them any good. But, as pathetic as it may be, and they are, I still prefer to side with the underdog." He stands up slowly, the wind whipping around him, the wind whips my hair around too.

"Long time no see Greed." Bradley says. "If you had any sense at all you would have stayed out of my sight for good." Like Greed would ever back away from something like this.

"Yea, my avarice tends to make these decisions for me. And right now," the blackness of his Ultimate Shield engulf his right arm, the one that's missing the sleeve from Gluttony oh-so-long-ago, "I want your life Wrath!" And just like that he jumps. I all but scream, I crawl to the ledge and watch as Greed lands with a lot of force. Damn, that means I'm trapped up here. My head gets light headed from looking but I don't want to move away. "Rumor has it, you died in a fiery death in a train accident." He did? "You look unscathed to me." Maybe that's what we were doing stalking around Central when I was too busy focused on myself to care.

"Let's just say that I had sharp eyes. It only took a moment for me to evaluate a path through the rubble. The rest of it was footwork. However," Bradley rubs his neck, "the years do take their toll, the whole ordeal left me with a few aches and pains."

The smell of smoke burns in my nose as I suddenly become aware of it. Bradley dealt a lot of damage to that entrance shaft. Ling's cheerful voice draws me from my thoughts. "It's good to see you Warrant Officer."

"It's Lieutenant!" A man in a blue uniform yells.

"Oh whatever," Ling smiles, "I owe you one. So, I'll give you hand and I've got a score to settle." His personality changes to Greed's, "Truth is, we both have got a grudge to settle with this self-righteous, old, bastard!" Greed gets into a fighting stance, "C'mon!" My homunculus yells as he races forward. It's clear that Bradley is the solid fighter wielding his sword. Greed jumps around and moves a lot more than I've ever seen him. He jumps back and runs around Bradley. "Trying to hid in my blind spot huh?" Bradley wears that eye patch, right, I almost forgot.

"I'm surprised I didn't think of it, but the prince gave me a few good pointers on how to fight you."

"How helpful. Unfortunately for you," Bradley takes the eye patch off, throwing it into the air before going at Greed. The older man quickly gains the upper hand, forcing my homunculus back. It seems all Greed can do is duck and dodge. Bradley forces Greed against the wall and holds his arm back, ready to slice him. My heart clenches and at the last second Greed moves, the blade slices into the wall.

"Fire! Open fire!" The few soldiers, dressed in white uniforms, start to fire at Wrath. My body jolts with each snap. I need to get down there and help.

"Damn it! Stay out of this!" Greed warns, but a moment too late, Wrath slices through the men with inhuman speed. They need help! I swallow hard and glance down, there are multiple layers to Central… if I could get down each layer…

"No you son of a bitch!" A enormous man yells, racing forward, he only has one arm, the other was clearly automail. Before he can get to Bradley the homunculus stabs him in the stomach. I think the man will keel over but instead he lifts his hand wrapped in what appears to be a chain and prepares to slam it onto Bradley but he jumps away. He's lost his sword at least.

With the help of my alchemy I lower myself onto the next little level. My heart pounds as I listen to Bradley and that man talk. "Are you trying to get killed, you dumb ass!" Greed roars, "Then again… I appreciate the help!" I want to look over my shoulder but I don't dare to as I shimmy my way down. From behind me I can hear the start of a fight, the sound of boots sliding on concrete fills my ear.

"Not exactly my weapon of choice, but I guess it'll just have to make due." Bradley got another weapon? Damn it. He can't fight fair. I have to hurry. I need to help Greed. I'm not sure how I can help but there's got to be something I can do.

"Now you've pissed me off old man!" I hear Greed yelling behind me before their fighting starts up again. My foot slips as I listen to Greed yelling, I can hear him jumping around, I can hear the sound of a blade on Greed's Ultimate Shield. My heart pounds so loud behind my ears. To steady myself I have to press my head against the wall. I can do it. I'm almost half way down. I can do it. They need help.

'They're sending another battalion up the shaft!" They really need help there's only a small handful of men up here. I can hear the two homunculus fighting. Greed won't be able to help.

"Sorry but I'm _kinda _busy if you haven't noticed. You're going to have to deal with it."

"Huh?" I am? But we hardly have any men left up here! What am I supposed to do?" They need me. I can help. I can help them I know it.

"Just figure it out!" His deep voice roars.

A few soldiers shout for their Captain, that big man that tried to attack Bradley. The steady sound of a machine gun jumps me, I slip and fall from the ledge I was on. My heart races, my vision goes white. All I can think about is surviving. When I reach my hand out it scrapes against the wall, water condenses around my arm and freezes, barely catching me. My whole body shakes as I dangle from my arm. I dropped a little too much. I can almost drop all the way. I can do it. With a deep breath I melt the water on my hand and drop down towards the ground. As I fall I see a black figure attack Bradley that's _not_ my homunculus. The second I land I roll a few times but my knees and shoulders still ache from the impact. A few soldiers look at me with wide eyes. Instead of wasting time I kneel by a fallen soldier and take the knife from his belt.

"Nice moves old man." It's Fu! My heart skips a beat, it's been ages since I've seen the old man it feels like. Fu and Greed stand a few feet away from Bradley who looks almost bored. "And thanks for the help, you really saved my ass."

"I wasn't trying to save your ass. I was saving the body of the young lord."

"Well, it's the same ass."

"You're sickening chi is radiating from the prince's body." Sickening? Granted I get the creepy feeling whenever another homunculus is around but for some reason I never got that full body shudder when I was around Greed. "Although, it did actually help me to locate you." There's a pause and I grip my knife wondering when I should move in. "So, why don't you tell me who this is we're fighting especially since neither of us could leave a scratch on him."

"That's Furer King Bradley, old man."

Fu inhales sharply, "Well… this is the first time I've actually laid eyes on him." His body starts to quiver. "So now I know what the bastard who took my granddaughter's arm looks like." The old man lifts a long knife up in front of his face that looked determined. Bradley is the reason Lan Fan has an automail arm? Heartless bastard. And he's just standing there. Fu races forward and I do to.

"Avis!" Greed roars. Bradley deflects Fu with ease before turning to me. The blades of our knifes collide and I feel his full strength.

"Well, well, well." Bradley smirks down at me. "You're that girl from Dublith aren't you? How interesting." Greed runs forward, making Bradley back off. Arms wrap around my waist and I'm pulled away from the action.

"What the hell are you thinking?" Greed growls.

"I can help!" I demand shoving his hands away.

"No you can't!"

Fu, trying to balance Bradley on his own, is thrown back into the wall. The homunculus walks forward and I push Greed out of the way before I run forward. I'm not useless Greed! I'm not. I jump from side to side, glad I'm fast as Bradley overpowers me quickly. I jump back for the next man, but nobody's there. Instead Bradley's knife digs into my shoulder. I shriek in pain and jump back as Fu rushes in and distracts him for a moment. Greed jumps high into the sky and kicks out his foot, ready to land it on his brother's head. Sadly the foot is caught and my homunculus is thrown into Fu who was racing forward to attack. Greed lands directly on the knife and yells. "Ow! What the hell old man!" My arm drips blood as I try to move forward to help them, they're standing still, how stupid can they be?

Bradley races towards them and slides between the two. Fu jumps over him while Greed ducks down. The swordsman kicks him in the face and puts one of the two knives he was holding through his coat. Fu runs towards Wrath and I run too. There's no way I can't help. Greed should be able to just slide from his jacket but he doesn't.

Before I know what happens I'm thrown back into a wall, my breath leaves my lungs in a sharp exhale. There's the sound of metal _shink_. "Certainly makes a difference when you have a weapon your more comfortable with!" My eyes fly open and I find that sure enough Bradley has the longer sword while Fu has the short knife like my own. His eyes glare towards me and I press back into the wall. Before I can think he's right in front of me. It takes a second before pain bursts through my stomach. I let out a cry and Greed matches it. "What a pathetic little girl." Without thinking I touch his arm, transmuting the water inside, before it can get too hot to deal a lot of damage he pulls away, ripping the sword from my stomach. Blood spurts from the wound and my eyes fill with tears. No. Damn it. Greed starts towards me as my vision blurs.

Bradley turns back to Fu and with a long upward slice the small knife breaks and Fu jumps away. His forehead almost seems to explode with blood gushing from his forehead. The old man is given no time to relax as Bradley is right on him, ready to attack. Greed's at my side, his hands press against my stomach. Hard as I try to push him away he doesn't move. "It's impressive how quickly you move, you're even older than I am, however this is as old as you're going to get!" Bradley slices and the old man's stomach starts to bleed. My hand clenches around my knife as I prepare to run forward, Ling growls from beside me, he took over Greed's body. Wrath lifts his sword ready to deliver the final blow before Ling races forward with incredible speed and sweeps the old man out of the way.

"Well if it isn't the young prince." Ling's eyes narrow. "I can't help but recall the last time we fought when I took that girl's arm. It seems like once again you'd rather give up your own life than give up on something that's not even worth fighting for." I race forward in the lull, my stomach burns as I do, Ling starts yelling about what it means to be king. Bradley is too absorbed in the conversation. Just when I think I'll land a hit he turns and I lift my knife prepared for the next blow. Instead he grabs my hair and slams me onto my knees.

"Avis!" Ling yells, his body shakes. My hair burns and I squeeze my eyes shut. He's going to kill me. But I can't die. I can't. I made a promise. I have Leigh. My eyes meet with Fu's, he gives me a soft smile and a nod and I return it. A knife digs into my back and I take a breath. There's a sharp exhale from Ling and Fu yells, "Harden your shield Greed!" I slide my knife above my head narrowly missing Bradley's hand, his knife digs into my back but not enough to stop me. My hair falls around my shoulders too short. Fu races forward, ripping his shirt off. I race the other way towards Greed. "This old servant has no choice but to offer his retirement!" The old man had bombs on his chest.

"You stubborn fool!" Ling screams as I grab his shoulders holding him down. Fu understood he wasn't going to die, he's bleeding too badly to live.

"I'm taking you straight to hell with me you bastard!" Fu screams as he reaches his hand out and grabs onto Bradley's head. There's a slicing sound and everything is silent before I notice Bradley has his sword out, on the blade the bomb tops burn out. Fu gages and blood spurts from around his middle. Bradley sliced through him! Ling tries to sit up but I force him back to the ground, tears forming in my eyes. Bucaneer races forward, behind Fu, and stabs the homunculus through the ninja.

"The Philosopher's Stone might have given you the eyes of a God but even you can't dodge an attack if you can't see it coming!" Bucaneer pants for a moment, "Alright old man, maybe you are going to hell but you aren't going alone… I'll keep you company on the ride down." Fu lets out a cough and I can fell his life force leaving. Wrath kicks the two men off him, pulling the sword from his stomach. Greed yells and races past me. Blood drips from Bradley's stomach as Greed attacks him, slicing through the sword and slicing Bradley's face. My homunculus is so pissed.

When Fu and Bucaneer stop moving from the kick I start towards them. "_Grandfather!_" My feet freeze and I look to see Lan Fan all the way up on the roof. My heart clenches and I have to close my eyes. My shoulder and stomach scream in pain, my head throbs, and I can't feel my limbs anymore. The war hasn't even started yet.

.-.

A/N: Happy Valentine's Day everyone!


	17. Chapter 17

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

The ground vibrates under my feet. Immediately my hands fly out to balance myself. A nasty energy radiates from under the ground and makes my stomach twist like I'm going to be sick. Lan Fan, ignoring the feeling, jumps down beside her father. Blue electricity sparks everywhere. A transmutation circle? Bradley and Greed ignore it all and continue fighting. It's clear that Bradley has the upper hand. My fingers tighten around my knife as I climb to my feet and race towards them.

"Avis!" Greed roars noticing my approach, I ignore him and slice my arm out, across Bradley's arm, the wound in his shoulder slows him down and I actually manage to knick him before his fist slams into my stomach, sending me flying back. I feel like my stomach is on fire. When I try to move my knees shake and I can't stand. Damn it! I have to help! Hard as I try I can't force myself to my knees, my body refuses to move as I watch Bradley and Greed fight.

My homunculus is forced through the wall and the two fall through wall. I scream and try to move again. Fear radiates through my body, that's what it is. I'm afraid. I'm too afraid. From here I can hear Greed's yells and groans as the rocks start to give way. Move legs! Tears form in my eyes as I try to stand, my knees shake and I drop back down. My stomach burns and my shoulder as hot as the tears running down my cheeks. "Greed." I say softly. "Greed you can't die."

"Bastard!" Greed shouts out. Lan Fan looks up, her eyes wide through her mask as she stares at me. I attempt to stand again but drop right back to the ground. She stands suddenly and runs to the edge. Silver flashes and I hear Greed yell "What are you doing? Don't be stupid!" Her automail arm… "Stay out of this, damn it!" Lan Fan, you saved Greed.

"I must," Lan Fan says just loud enough for me to hear over the pounding in my ears, "it's my solemn vow to make sure you're safe." Red leaks down the sliver of her automail arm. She's stupid. She's risking her arm again for Ling. I squeeze my eyes shut as Greed yells at her, demanding she let him go and help Fu. "No!" She yells, I can hear the sadness in her voice. "It's to late for him. Briggs men help me!" I close my eyes as men run by me to help. There's a few sharp bangs of a gun and one of the men yells in pain. I listen to their grunts and moments later Ling starts screaming. "_Fu!_" Tears drip from my eyes as I listen to him scream. "Get a doctor! Someone who knows how to use alchemy! Hurry!" His voice is panicked. "I've got a Philosopher's Stone! Use all you want!" My knees shake as I sit there helplessly. There's no helping Fu, he's passed… and besides, I'm not a good alchemist… I wouldn't know how to use the Philosopher's Stone… "Somebody please! Somebody!" He's so desperate. "This is Amestris! A major alchemical power! Is there nobody? Anybody?" His voice softens. "Look at me!" When I finally look up Ling is crying and on his knees. "Tell me that I-" Before he finishes his sentence there's a bang and something strikes his forehead dead center. Ling drops to the ground and I watch as the man who shot him keeled over dead. The man climbed up the main shaft.

"My Lord!" Lan Fan runs to Greed.

I stumble to my feet, tripping every now and then but Ling needs me. "Why this?" Ling sobs as he slowly sits up. "I've finally gained immortality and I can't even save one of my subjects. Damn it!" I drop beside Ling, noticing the puckered red mark on his forehead, almost like the mark on my stomach. Those purple eyes that don't belong to Ling stare off as Bucaneer slowly starts to die, his subjects cry for him to stay alive. Inside I thank him for what he's done.

Behind me someone yells "Fire!" and a massive amount of noise fills my ears. Ling opens his mouth and begins to speak, "Because of you sir, Bradley was dealt a lethal blow. You made sure Fu's death was not in vain. Still I can do nothing for you." I close my eyes and listen to the dying man's ragged breath.

"Ling, listen… or Greed…" Bucaneer takes in deep breaths, "whichever, if you feel like you owe me one then do a small favor for me… our orders are to keep this gate from opening until we get the all clear from our General." I open my eyes to look at the large gate, why can't they open the door? "I'm asking you, defend it for me. Surely you can do that, with your power you might be… the only one who can do it… so will you?"

Greed, maybe Ling, looks at all the men, then he looks to Fu, and then to me. Those purple eyes soften and a smile forms before he stands. "Greed, I need your power. Give it to me." Ultimate Shield starts forming up his arms. "Lan Fan," Ling rips the sleeve of his jacket off, "you stay back and fight with the men here. Avis," When I stand my legs stay under me and I give my toughest glare, "Stay close." I nod, my insides twisting in both fear and anticipation.

"Really?" Bucaneer wheezes out. "You'll do it?"

"Yes I promise I will. I am a man of Xing and people from Xing always keep their word." He walks past me and I stay a step behind. We walk onto the elevator and he stands before me with his arms folded over his chest. An air of power floats around Ling as the lift starts to slide down, soldiers look at us curiously and ask each other what's going on. "Soldiers!" Ling's voice dominated the empty area, "Listen up! If you don't want to get hurt leave now," That's the caring Ling I know, "if you have a family go home! Oh yea," his voice changes to Greed's, "and ladies! I don't fight women I'm not that kinda guy!" Always caring for the ladies.

My smile was quickly destroyed when the men started to fire at us. Greed didn't move, taking each and every shot, they weren't that good a shot, maybe they were just panicking. A cannon was fired at us, but it missed and made a huge explosion. The smell of smoke and metal burned my nose but I had to stay strong. I was here to help and help I would. I gather water around me, Ling has to sense the molecules because he gives me a nod before jumping off the elevator. While he runs through the men, slicing them with his sharp claws.

As much as I wanted to watch the black figure run through the men leaving streaks of blood and screams behind I stayed alert, some men were stupid enough to shoot at me. I deflected their bullets, barely, with the help of my ice. So long as none of them touched me I could care less about what happened to the bullets. There was a loud bang and I watch in horror as a cannon was heading straight towards me. I let out a shriek and duck just in time for it to hit the elevators cable, there was a boom and the elevator rocketed forward under the force of gravity.

"Greed!" I scream closing my eyes. Hands grab me around the waist, too tightly for my wounds, and I'm flying through the smoke. Greed sets me down, his hands petting my hair back into place.

"Stay in here ok?" He asks as the sound of explosions and screams and dying moans surround us. "I'll be back for you in a minute. Don't leave this place." I nod my head weakly and he leaves. The black smoke burns at my eyes and clogs my lungs as I stand there listen to a single man dying. Tears fill my eyes as I stare at the death and destruction before me. Everything is blue and red and black. But for mine and the rest of Amerstis' survival these men needed to die. They probably never realized what exactly they were fighting for.

Outside I can hear gun fire, screams, and what sounds like a truck squealing its tires. Ling… Greed… please be alright. There's explosions and when I hear a loud scream I decide to at least peek outside, the sounds of gunfire has hit a lull. I find my Greed-Ling crouched in front of a large fire with what I can only assume is the complete Ultimate Shield, his face looks like some mask with shiny white teeth. He stands and drops the soldier he was holding.

"Avis." His voice sounds heavy like he's trying to talk with his mouth full. I run to his side and the Ultimate Shield instantly retracts leaving my Greed with wide purple eyes. "C'mon we have to go the eclipse is starting." Stupidly, I look up to the sun, sure enough the moon is creeping in on the edge of the bright orb. "I know a way to get to Father." Greed tells me as we race through back alleyways.

.-.

We're underground before the moon is a quarter of the way over the sun, still Greed continues to run. I try to keep up but my shoulder and stomach burn from the smoke and the movement. "Greed, wait." I cry. Before I can think he scoops me into his arms and runs through the tunnels. My stomach gets a sinking feeling and the powerful presence draws closer and closer. Suddenly I'm placed on the ground, my body has started to shudder from the force of the presence.

"Avis." Greed speaks my name quickly before he frowns and tugs at my short hair. Tears drip from my eyes, I'd forgotten my hair was short. "That bastard will pay for what he did to you." He promises in a dark tone. "You need to stay here ok? I don't want you to face Father in your condition." His voice softens. "This might be it kiddo." His hands are warm when they grab the sides of my face. "Stay here."

"You'll com-"

"I can't promise anything. I won't lie, not to you, not ever." He pulls me close and takes a deep breath. I bury my nose into his shoulder and breath in the smell of smoke and blood and sweat. "Don't cry…"

"I can't help it." I murmur, "I don't want you to go. I don't want you to die. I don't want anyone to die." The images of Fu and Bucaneer and all those soldiers flood my eyes. I can't imagine Greed or Leigh or Anabelle or any of my friends like that it's just… too much.

"Shh." Greed murmurs as I sob into his shoulder. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this… I shouldn't have become so attached to you." He sighs and holds me at arm length. "I know this is what you've wanted to hear for a long time kid." Our eyes meet, even through my blurry tear-filled vision I can see his eyes soften. "I love you."

My heart stops and I let out a sob as I grab onto him as tightly as possible. After all this time, all my worries and tears, after everything, he loves me and Greed doesn't lie so… "I love you." I tell him back. "Please don't go."

"I have to." Greed says. "I have to try." His voice sounds tight like he's trying to keep from crying. "I gotta at least try to protect you and Leigh." He wipes the tears from my cheeks before kissing me, his hands run through my hair as he holds me against him. Please don't leave. You finally admit you love me and now you give me the sweetest kiss ever and you're going to leave? Please. My heart can't take this.

Before I realize it Greed's gone. I'm alone in a cold, dark tunnel. Even when I pull my legs to my chest I continue to shiver. The ground shakes violently and I realize this is it. The world is going to end in a matter of minutes and I'm going to die alone in this cave. I never even got to say goodbye to Leigh. I hope she's doing ok. My body shudders from the immense feeling beneath me, the hairs on my arms rise and I realize some incredible alchemy is being preformed right now. Oh no… they weren't able to do it. They weren't able to save us. We're going to die.

Something cold rises around me like water. I scream and attempt to stand, even in the half darkness I can see that whatever this stuff is it's pitch black. Like water it rises up and up and up. "Greed!" I start to scream not knowing what else to do. I try to transmute the water but it's not water. It rises to my waist too quick and I scream again. Agony and pain begin to prick at my body as it rises higher and higher. Help. Help me.

Everything has a red tinge to it as I stare through the blackness. What's going on? Black hands, like the one's Pride uses, rise up from the ground. A scream pierces the silence. Oxygen refuses to enter my lungs. I take a breath but nothing happens, my hands fly to my neck as little white dots blot my vision. What's going on? I cough and choke and try to get some air but… nothing. "Leigh… Greed." My knees collapse and I fall to the ground, my vision growing blacker. You promised Greed…

.-.A/N: I've officially finished typing this story. I think I cried while I watched the last episode. There's only going to be two or three more chapters, I haven't decided how I'm going to break it up yet.


	18. Chapter 18

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

Air feels strange in my lungs. I cough and hack, my stomach twists with the movements. My body shivers as I climb onto my hands and knees. I… I blacked out. What happened? How long was I out for? It's like when I was with Greed the first time. Greed. My eyes instantly begin to dart around, I'm in that tunnel still. When I try and stand my head spins and I have to lean on the wall. What's going on? My knees shake and feel too weak, like I'll fall over at any minute. When I touch my stomach I find I'm still wounded and it still hurts. What happened to Greed? Leigh? Anabelle? Are they ok? I hold my chest and cough. They have to be ok. Did they feel that horrible feeling too? Do they have memories of screams of pain in the backs of their heads like me? Do they have memories of being trapped in a vortex? The pain… I hold my chest and cough.

My body shudders and I drop to my knees. That man, Father. He has so much power. What… what happened? Wasn't he going to sacrifice us? But… I'm alive. What… I stumble forward just as a huge cloud of dust blows through, an enormous amount of energy rockets by where the dust came from. I cover my face and cough again and again. The ground feels ten times stronger beneath me as I stand there. What's going on?

A figure appears through the smoke, instinct makes me be defensive, features form and I race forward. Against everything I wrap my arms around Greed so hard we almost fall over. I crash my lips against his and refuse to let go. He holds me tightly and after a moment his presence changes, his body shifts and I realize without opening my eyes he's Ling. Still I kiss him and he kisses me back. Part of my love for Greed comes from Ling, his body, and as time went on as I've seen more of Ling and his devotion… I hold the man close as I break apart.

"I'm sorry." Ling whispers.

"For what."

"For this." He kisses me again, harder than before. His body changes and he's Greed again. Greed breaks the kiss and stares down at me. "You're hair's too short." He mumbles, his hand sliding through my hair. "Ling and I will take care of you." Greed kneels and motions for me to get onto his back. I do as said and cling against him as he races from the tunnel and begins to scale the wall, through holes in the ground until we find Lan Fan and a dark skinned Ishballan.

"My Lord!" Lan Fan gasps as Greed jumps onto the ground, setting me down.

"I told you! The name's Greed." He growls before we turn and find Bradley lying dead on the ground. With a smile on his face. You bastard. You didn't deserve to die with a smile. The sun shines into my eyes when I peer up through the holes in the ground. Greed appears at my side, his hand grabs my shoulder tightly. "Are you ready kid?"

"Don't call me kid." I glare at him making him smirk.

"Yea, guess I shouldn't call you kid huh?" He chuckles softly.

There's a massive amount of energy and light shines incredibly bright through the holes. The ground shakes and rocks and blocks of stone fall from the roof. Greed swears and covers my body with his own.

"Greed!" We both turn and someone transmuted a large platform, many people stand on it. A lot of soldiers, a few chimera, and a couple women.. Leigh! Anabelle! I race forward and Leigh attacks me, wrapping her arms around me tightly. She seems fine, maybe a cut on her shoulder but.

"Are you ok?" Leigh asks, touching my stomach making me wince.

"I'm fine."

"Perfect." Greed walks to my side, "Now how 'bout a lift, you could use someone who knows what's going on, right?" Lan Fan is at his side and one of the people on the platform agree, asking what's going on.

"Oh, not much." Greed says, his voice rising. "The father of the homunculus is going berserk out there!" His hands start to gesture wildly, Leigh's hands grasp my clothes tightly. "So, let's go! We'll need anyone who can still fight… You!" He points. "The fat frog man and the two women get out! You're injured!" There's a collective gasp. Said fat frog man is covered with blood, one of the women has her arm in a sling and the other, Riza Hawkeye, grasps her neck, her jacket is covered in blood. Just what happened to them?

"Absolutely not!" The blond woman I didn't know growls in a strong voice. "I still have forces who need me to lead them."

"Forget that. Get down here, now." Greed demands. "This is no time for a pissing contest over who's in charge."

"I'm not taking orders from-" Her voice cuts off when one of the soldiers steps forward.

"General, a message from headquarters!" He hands out a telephone to the woman who grunts but takes the phone.

"Operations, it's me. What's happening?"

From the telephone I can hear a voice, "General, it's the Central Command Center… half of it's been blown up."

Everyone gasps and a large burly man asks in a confused voice, "Blown up?"

"We can't contact the North Gate." The voice says. My heart thumps, all those people are dead. There's no way they're alive.

"You see the power he has?" My homunculus' voice softens, his hand resting once again on my shoulder.

"What sort of monster is he?" Someone asks.

"He appears," he draws out the word "appears", "to be an ordinary man. However, within him is a Philosopher's Stone powered by many _thousands_ of people." I can hear the tightness in his voice. "You could say he's used it's energy to claim the powers of God for himself… as alchemists you understand the trouble this presents."

"All too well." The big burly man murmurs.

"Any ordinary human should leave now." Greed squeezes my shoulder.

"My men are still fighting, I will not just abandon my forces. I have a duty as their commanding officer." I like this blond woman, she's so dedicated, she's injured and she wants to continue fighting.

"General, it's headquarters again sir."

"What is it?" She sounds really angry.

"Don't worry about us sir," the voice murmurs, "have you forgotten who we are? We Briggs soldiers are trained to respond instantly as one force to any threat even without you." They sound tough. "From what I hear you've been injured General. Please stay and wait where you are."

The woman turns to the burly man and shouts, "Listen up Alex!"

The man chokes out a "Yes?"

"Take the radio with you!" She thrusts the telephone into his bare chest. "WIn at any cost."

The man clenches his fist, "Well of course!" The energy starts to rise in the room. We're preparing ourselves for the end.

"Right. Let's move Hawkeye." Mustang? My head snaps around to where Mustang stands with Anabelle and Hawkeye. His eyes are closed, why?

"Uh, hold on." Greed stands beside him. "You two aren't in any shape to fight either."

"I'm going to burn up that Philosopher's Stone of his. I'll need the Lieutenant's help in order to do so." I'm confused.

Mr. Gorilla pats Greed on the shoulder, "Let it go. Now, let's move."

"Right." Lan Fan steps forward. "I'm coming too, it's my job to protect the young lord."

"Me too." I say.

"Me three!" Leigh agrees.

"Avis you're inj-"

"Greed." I tell him, he closes his mouth and helps me onto the platform. His nails dig into my shoulder as the injured and a few of the soldiers get off.

"Stay close to me." His voice murmurs into my ear. I nod and turn to face him. "Not now." He turns his head forward, his eyes narrow. The platform lifts, the burly man; Alex, uses alchemy to lift it.

"Just say it again." I ask.

"No." Greed says solidly and I frown. "I'll tell you later."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

As we rise the sounds of gunfire, explosions, and yells come closer and closer. My heart thumps inside my chest. Leigh's hand slips into mine and in return I slip my other into Greed. We'll make it through this. The sun shines full force down on us when we arrive at ground level. There's a large courtyard with a man with flowing blond hair in the middle. Everyone's attacking him. He must be Father. He's as powerful as God. Leigh and I squeeze hands as we jump from the platform. Alex and Mustang immediately join the attack. Someone yells that we need to use up his Philosopher's Stone. Anabelle races forward, a gun in her hands as everyone begins their attack.

"Let's go." I tell Leigh racing forward. We both touch our gloves at the exact moment and slam our hands into the ground. Huge rocks form and launch themselves at Father. I form icicles and fire them at him. Nothing seems to work. Not gunfire, alchemy, nothing. Father just stands there, a red light shields him.

"Now he's toast!" A woman with black hair shouts, slamming her hands into the ground. A large structure forms around Father. With a snap flames appear and whirl inside the structure around Father. The fire and smoke blow out at us with a lot of force. I cover my face as gunfire sounds around us. There has to be away around his defenses. We need to find it!

Greed jumps in through the smoke, I forgot he was no longer at my side. He punches Father in the face but instead his arm gets sucked in. Greed starts screaming and I move forward to help, someone's hand clamps around my shoulder holding me in place. I grit my teeth until Greed suddenly stops screaming, "Good acting right?" You jerk! "You can't take my stone from me without dropping your own barriers. Stupid fool, I bet you never thought your godly powers could be taken away did ya?" He snickers. "But you were wrong! They will be mine now!" Greed, you're too greedy. Instead of jumping away Greed's arm is pulled farther into the face of the blond man.

"Greed!" Ed yells, racing forward. Many of us try and help free Greed. Father just stands there, letting Greed try and keep his balance while blocking every attack with alchemy. I race forward, Leigh at my side. We both attack but it's blocked with ease.

Red light bursts from Father and forces everyone back. I land hard on my back, my shoulder screams in pain. "Don't give up now!" Ed screams as he races forward and kicks Father. The blond man blocks with his arm, not alchemy.

"Edward." Leigh whispers beside me. I notice the fact that he's missing his automail arm. When did that happen? When we were thrown back?

"His arm…" Hohenheim whispers, "not alchemy." Father starts spazzing out, his body jolts and shudders. Red lightning sparks from all around him shoot out and around. Something like black smoke or dust drifts from his mouth. "He's losing control… He can't keep the power of God he claims to have in check anymore." His mouth opens wide, screaming, he drops onto all fours. Red light explodes from his body and everyone is blown back. My body can't take this, it screams in pain as I land hard on my shoulder. Smoke billows around us. My head hurts as I just lay there. Everything, it hurts so much. Father starts yelling behind me, looking for a Philosopher's Stone, he's trying to get lives to become stronger. My hands clench in the dirt as I try to move.

"Edward get out now!" Leigh stirs immediately beside me. It takes me longer, when I sit up my shirt feels wet and warm on my chest, I'm bleeding again. Redness stains my palm when I touch my wound.

Father shuffles towards Edward who has his arm stuck on rebar. He can't get free. Al begins to scream for him to stop. Suddenly the younger Elric stops yelling and Father murmurs about energy, stone, Ed has to give it to him. "No Edward!" The Elric's father yells. Small knives appear at Ed's side, where his automail arm once was.

"Al _no_!" Ed screams. Electricity makes my hair stand on end as Al transmutes himself, or what's left of him. His armor is barely functioning. "Al you dumbass!" Ed screams as his right arm is back. Al's body goes limp. No. Edward transmutes stone into a pillar, knocking Father back. The blond rips the rebar from his arm and screams as he starts to race forward. Alchemy of all shapes and sizes is thrown at Father. Ed's raw emotion controls his movements. It's clear Father doesn't have much energy left, the attacks rip right through him, he's defenseless.

All around us people start cheering Edward on. Almost unconsciously people form a circle around the two blonds. Leigh races to join them, cheering Ed on with loud screams. Greed stands beside me watching. "Yea…" He murmurs to Ling. "You're right… this _is_ what I wanted." Edward screams as he attacks Father. "I wanted the chance to have friends like these." He turns his purple eyes down to me and smiles.

"What about the chimera? Back at the Devil's Nest?" I whisper. "What about me? Leigh? And…" He shakes his head and I close my mouth.

Edward starts screaming behind us, "Get up you novice! I'm about to show you how outclasses you are! This fight you lose!"

"I'm your friend." I say as a loud thump sounds behind me.

"He did it! He saved us!" People rejoice for a moment. The ground pulses and a huge force blows everyone back. My knees give and Greed grabs my shoulders to keep me upright as people lose their balance and fly back all around us.

"The stone!" Father shouts, desperation in his voice. "Philosopher's Stone!" Suddenly he's right in front of me, his arm buried deep inside Greed's stomach. "Give me your stone Greed." My fist reels back and I go to punch the man in the face.

"Avis!" Leigh shrieks.

"Be a good son!" Father demands.

Greed glares at me. Blackness begins to sink up Father's arm and I step back in surprise. Greed, you have to fight him. You have to! "Hey Lan Fan!" From the corner of my vision I watch as Lan Fan flies in, a knife at the ready but I can't take my eyes away from those purple eyes. "Love ya kiddo." He smirks and then it's all gone. Lan Fan lands with a thump. Father stumbles back. "Greed no!" I grab Ling's shoulders.

"No Greed!" Ed races over with Leigh at his heels.

"How could you Greed!" The tattoo on Ling's hand disintegrates like all the homunculus have. My heart hammers inside my chest as my hands start to shake and feel tingly. Greed. No. I watch in horror as the blackness starts to take over Father's body. It's almost like the Ultimate Shield only more fragile. It is carbon isn't it? Carbon can be fragile. From the inside of Father's mouth the face I can only explain as Greed's true face, the Ultimate Shield, smirks. The carbon starts to crumble. Father reaches into his mouth and grabs Greed, pulling him out of his mouth.

"Greed!" I scream as Father bites down, severing Greed into just the face of the Ultimate Shield. Ling's hands grab my shoulders as we watch Greed slowly start to disappear. My whole body shakes as tears race down my cheeks like a waterfall. No you can't die. You can't. I love you. You can't leave me! Leigh grabs my hand as I shake, Greed smiles as the edges of his face chip away.

Ed races forward and punches Father straight through the chest. Red souls explode from inside him. They swirl around like a tornado, screaming, their screams echo the pain inside my own chest. Greed's dead… he's really dead. The souls vanish and Father whispers, "My stone… you destroyed my stone." About time. You deserve to die after all the pain you've caused. Black hands come out from the hole in his stomach and grab him. They start to force the man in on himself.

I look away as he begins to scream. The sky is clear, no sign of Greed. My hand clenches around Leigh's and I can't help but let out a sob. "Free! I just wanted to be free!" Father screams. That's all anyone has ever wanted. I glance to the blond just in time to watch him disappear in a poof of smoke. Gone for good. Just like Greed.

.-.

A/N: I do believe I cried watching this episode and then again when I was writing this.


	19. Chapter 19

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

Suddenly all the attention is on Al, who still hasn't woken up. A little girl sobs beside him as Ed stares down at the broken body. There has to be something we can do to save Al. Without his sacrifice we could all be dead right now. Leigh stands close to Ed, her hands shake as she clenches them into fists. What can we do?

"Ed," Ling walks past me, "I've got the toll for him. Take it. It's a Philosopher's Stone. Use it to bring him back."

"I can't." Ed's voice is hoarse. "As much as I want to I can't. I promised Al we'd never use a Philosopher's Stone."

"Edward." Mr. Hohenheim says, he's being supported by that black haired woman who's helped fight against Father. "Use my life for the toll. Use me to save Alphonse." He does look like he's about to die… "I've got just enough life left."

"No way. I could never do that you dumb ass. This doesn't have anything to do with you. It's our own damn fault, I won't use another human life to bring Al back and I don't care who's it is. Why should you sacrifice your life for our mistake!" Ed's voice rises.

"Because I'm his father." My heart squeezes. His father… I wish I had a father like that… All my father figures have died on me… "And that's the only thing that matters. You don't know how much you boys mean to me." I close my eyes tightly. "And I just want you to be happy. And I do bear some responsibility for this… this might not have happened if I'd been there for you." His voice sounds tight. "I'm sorry Ed. I've lived long enough. Just give me this chance to act like a father for once in my life." Hot tears cling to my eyes.

"Shut up you rotten father!" Ed yells. "You say something that dumb again and I'll knock you out!" When I look up Ed's crying.

"I'm sorry. Forgive me." His father looks close to crying too.

Ed wipes at his tears as he stands. "May, Leigh stand back a little." He smiles and picks up a piece of rebar. He walks to a clear spot and begins to draw on the ground. After a while Ling gasps, "It's a human transmutation circle." I look up frightened, Leigh gasps.

"I'll be back in a few minutes." Ed smiles. "This is my last transmutation." What?" "Stand back and enjoy the show." When he claps his hands the blue electricity makes the hair on my arms stand on end, he touches the ground. Leigh yells for him to stop as a blue light blinds me momentarily. When I can see again Ed's no longer there. Leigh yells and I race to grab her before she gets too close to the circle. His last transmutation? What does that mean?

Anabelle walks forward and offers us a smile. "So you two got sucked into this after all." She says. "Tsk."

"You look like you've had a fun time." I say sarcastically, her arm has blood stains on it.

"Same to you." She nods her head to my stomach which has begun to stain my shirt again. "You got out pretty well." The blond smiles to the brunette who nods her head, her eyes are wide in shock. Edward isn't back. "I'm sorry about that dude, Greed was it?" My heart squeezes and I bite my lip.

There's a flash of white light and Ed appears with a bony blond boy. Naked. I look away immediately. Everyone rushes to aid Ed. That boy… it's Al! I race forward as we watch the young boy sleep. He looks so weak.

"Avis." Ling says softly. The corners of my vision go black when I turn to the black haired man, his eyes are closed as he holds out his hand to me. "Come with me for a minute." I take his hand in my own, our fingers slide together with ease. "When Father was taking Greed… I was fighting to keep him…" Ling says softly. "He lied to me." My eyes widen. "His first and last lie. He told me he'd settle for being Emperor of Xing… but he told me you had to be there. I believe he was telling the truth about that though… He sucker punched me and disappeared." Ling sounds just as upset as I do. "Greed and I have been together a long time… and I've been around you too."

I nod my head as we settle down against a piece of rubble.

"As time went by it got harder and harder for Greed to hide how he felt about you. I saw you through his eyes. He really did love you. He worried about you constantly. From always hearing about his devotion I grew to like you too." He smiles.

So does he love me because Greed loved me?

"He asked me to keep you safe. I've been thinking about this… I want to ask your permission but…" He reveals the Philosopher's Stone, it's more like a liquid inside a small bottle. "I'm going to give this to May Chang…"

"But-"

"She'll make a fine Empress, besides she won't be alone…. Lan Fan will be at her side…" Ling swallows hard, he's giving up his dream of being Emperor? "I think I should stay here, not just to protect you." He opens his coal grey eyes at me. "I'll stay here and help Mustang connect to Xing, I think it'll be a good idea for both nations to come in contact with each other. So, would that be alright with you?" He asks. "I know I'm no Greed but…"

I hug him tightly. "You can do whatever you feel is right… but you've wanted to be Emperor for so long… you shouldn't give up that dream."

Ling hugs me back. "I know. It's ok though. I'm fine with this."

"Are you sure?"

"Yea. I can be a liaison between the countries." He smiles wide at me.

"Hey! He's waking up." Ling and I look up and head over to where the blond boy sits up with the help of his brother.

"Zampano and Darius you're all here… Dad!" Al sounds the same but he looks so different.

"Hey," Hohenheim says, "welcome back." He holds out his hand and Al places his small hand in it.

"Home at last." Al whispers as Ling and I walk over. "It's so warm." The little black haired girl races over and hugs Al tightly, she lets out a sob. "May." May Chang? The future Empress of Xing?

"I was so scared." She sobs.

"I bet. Sorry it was wrong of me to put you through that. It's ok now." Al's such a sweet boy. My hand slides into Ling's as we stand there. Soldiers help the injured and everyone disperses. "Hey Ling."

"Yes Avis?"

"Why are you giving up your dreams?"

"Because being with Greed made me realize something… it's no life if you don't have any friends. Here, in Amestris, I have friends, I have you and Leigh and Edward."

"What about Lan Fan?"

"Her job is to protect me and while I care dearly for her I've already caused her so much pain." Is he talking about her automail arm? "Amestris could use my help." He smiles down at me.

"My Lord." Lan Fan walks over, her eyes are dark, she has to know what Ling is planning. Ling's hand squeezes mine as we walk towards May Chang as she sits on the ground crying. Ed and Al walk up at the same time.

"Hey, Princess Chang!"

"Ling Yao!" She immediately jumps to her feet, she's so young, younger than me.

"Hey, c'mon quit looking at me like you want to kill me alright?" Ling lets go of my hand and kneels in front of her. "You're about as stupid as I am… getting mixed up with this countries problems. And you didn't even end up with a Philosopher's Stone." He holds out the bottle to the crying young girl who gasps. "You know what this means… my clan won." She cries. "But… if you'll promise me something. I'll let you have it."

She squeaks and looks up at him. "What?"

"I need your help." Ling starts as he wiggles the bottle. "I'm staying here in Amestris. I need to protect Avis, I made a promise to someone. I'm going to help the people here connect with Xing… I'll let you be Empress if you'll promise to treat all the clans fairly, being one of the weakest clans I'm sure you'll understand. You also need to help me in bringing Xing and Amestris closer. Can you do that?"

May's eyes grow wide and she nods her head eagerly. "Yes. I can do that. I promise."

"Good." Ling places the stone in her palm. "Lan Fan will go back with you. Make sure you bury Fu ok?" May nods again. The boy from Xing ruffles her hair as she beings to cry. "Woah, careful with the tears… you're going to drown yourself." I smile as he stands and turns to Ed. "We'll be seeing each other around right?"

"Right." They both hold our their fists and bump them together.

Ling then turns to Lan Fan who's closed her mouth into a straight line. "Thanks for always being there for me Lan Fan… you understand?" She nods. "We'll see each other soon. Take care of May for me ok? Alright, Avis, let's get you to the hospital." Ling pulls me to his side and holds onto my shoulder, it aches but I allowed myself to be lead by the black haired boy.

"Greed's rubbed off on you." I murmur as we walk.

"Hn? Oh yea?"

"Yea. You want everyone to be protected and happy… and you're not as aloof."

His laugh is musical in my ears. "I guess he did. I guess he did…." He whispers before his lips touch my forehead.

.-.

Turns out Mustang lost his eye sight, but that didn't stop him from trying to reach his goals. While I was in the hospital I visited him often, he spent all his time learning facts of Ishbal. It didn't take long for my injuries to heal, Leigh and Anabelle visited me often. Anabelle said she was mainly there to help Mustang. Leigh was there to make sure Ed and Al healed up alright. I never knew when to expect Ling or if he'd actually use the door sneak through the window.

"Avis… Avis~" I ignored the voice. I was so comfortable for once. I was trying to sleep. "Avis wake up." Finally I open my eyes and find a pair of grey eyes staring at me. I start to scream before a hand clamps down over my mouth. "Hey, hey, hey, don't scream it's just me."

"Ling." I hiss removing his hand as he climbs into the bed beside me. "What are you doing?"

"I wanted a bed to sleep in." Ling chuckles as he clings to my side.

I huff, "If they find you-"

"They won't." Ling cuts me off as he slides himself under my blanket. "When are they going to let you out? Leigh and your blond friend are out."

"Soon." I tell him. "I'm almost fully healed." I touch my stomach, Now there's another scar to add to my stomach. "What are we going to do when I get out of here?"

"We're going to Dublith." My heart squeezes. "Mhmm." Ling breaths deeply beside me. "It only feels right. But, I've talked with Mustang, we'll be coming back to Central whenever they need me… and we might go to Xing soon."

"I'd like to see Xing."

"I'd like to show you Xing." Ling mumbles before he yawns. "We can talk later… right now all I want is this nice warm bed and this pretty girl." When I blush and slap his hand he chuckles and sets his head onto my shoulder. Slowly we fall asleep together just like old times, only now we're not on the floor or the ground.

.-.

Leigh bites her lip as she looks to the ground. She stands before me and Anabelle awkwardly. "I… this is goodbye… for now at least." The brunette finally says.

"What?" I ask.

"I-I'm going with Ed and Al back to Risembool." She says, her green eyes are shiny with tears. "Ed asked me to come back with him… and I couldn't say no… I'll write to you all the time!" She flings her arms around me and Anabelle before letting out a loud sob. "I'm going to miss you!"

"I'll miss you too." I tell her, patting her back. It's been almost two months since the incident, Al has made an incredible recovery. Ling has been running errands lately, whenever I ask him where he goes he just smiles and gives me a kiss. "I have to tell you that I'm going to Dublith with Ling."

"You and that boy." Anabelle shakes her head. "You shouldn't get mixed up with that foreigner. Does he even have his visa?"

"Yes." I puff up my cheeks. "He's no illegal immigrant."

Anabelle laughs, "I'm teasing you. God. I'm staying here, in Central with Mustang. I've heard he's going to get his eyesight back… and that Havoc is going to get the use of his legs back." I smile, that will be a great day.

Leigh hugs me tightly. "I'll write all the time. You gotta write too."

"I will." I promise.

"Leigh!" Ed calls, "C'mon, we're heading to the train station!"

"Coming!" Leigh calls over her shoulder before hugging us one last time. "See ya later." And just like that the brunette runs off leaving me and Anabelle to watch her.

"Keep in touch." Said blond pats my shoulder before she turns and walks off.

For a moment I stand there in the middle of the road before a hand slides into my own. "Surprise." Ling whispers in my ear before he knocks his forehead against my own gently.

"What?" I ask.

"We're also leaving." He tells me. "I have everything in place." When I furrow my eyebrows he continues. "We're moving to Dublith."

.-.

A/N: Yea, I changed the ending, just a little bit, I hope you guys don't hate me too bad. I did try and show that it wasn't _just_ for Avis. I have an epilogue I'll post and a small oneshot I may or may not post depending if I have the nerve to post my first _real_ M-rated fic. Would you guys want to read it?


	20. Epilogue

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. And Leigh and Anabelle are owned by my. If you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

.-.

For the next two years Ling and I bounce between Dublith and Central. May kept her word and the negotiations for a train tracks between Xing and Amestris are being formed. I don't hear from Leigh very often, from what I hear she's heading west with Ed. I hear they're researching a new theory.

Ling's off to Central, without me this time, leaving me alone in Dublith. We've made quite a decent living, he gets a lot of money from working to the state. I do odd jobs wherever we are, I bartend a lot. Today my mind was elsewhere as I wander through Dublith. Before I realize where I am I'm standing in front of what used to be the Devil's Nest. It's now just an empty building, blocked off for the rest of the world. Against my better judgment I slide between the wood being used to barricade the door. The place smells the same, smoke and alcohol and musk. A little light filters through the dusty curtains, guiding my way.

My feet walk on autopilot. I bet I could walk through here with my eyes closed. Greed's bedroom is the same as the last time I saw it. The maroon sheets feel so soft under my hands when I sit down. The nightstand still has the dent in it from Leigh's alchemy. I can't help but smile as I touch the dent. Memories of Greed and the chimera drift through my head.

"Greed I wish you were here." I murmur.

"Is this the Devil's Nest?" Ling's voice carries through the room. I don't look up, I don't need to, his presence comes closer before he settles beside me, wrapping me into his arms. "I've never actually seen it."

"Yea." I set my head on his chest. "This is the Devil's Nest… This is Greed's room… he nursed me back to health."

"I saw the memories. You really looked up to him didn't you?" I nod my head. "How about we stay here tonight?"

"We can't do that." I tell him. "Someone will find us."

"Nobody will find us." Ling says. "This place is abandoned and you know it." Ling breaths against my ear before he yanks me down onto the bed. He nuzzles his nose into my neck making me giggle. "Don't think sad thoughts about Greed. You know he'd just scold you." I nod my head knowing he was right. Ling throws the blanket over us and holds me close to him. I hug him, he's so different from Greed but at the same time… I've caught myself multiple time calling him Greed. Ling just gives me a sad smile whenever I do.

"I love you." I say aloud.

"I love you too."

"I love Greed."

"I love Greed too."

I snuggle close to Ling as his breathing deepens. "It's the middle of the day silly goose. You can't go to sleep."

"I'm tired." He complains.

I giggle, he's always tired or hungry. His lips brush against mine before he's asleep. A sigh escapes my lips before I burrow my head under his chin and drift to sleep. We fall asleep there, in Greed's bed, happily brought together by the very homunculus I owe my life to.

.-.

"What are you cooking?" Ling asks. "It smells delicious!"

"You can't have any it's for when the others get here."

The black haired man huffs as his hands slide around my stomach. "Are you sure you should be moving around so much?"

"Of course." I stir a bowl of pasta.

"But won't it hur-"

"Hello~!" A voice calls through the house. A child lets out a squeal and feet patter through the house. I look over my shoulder and smile as a little blond haired baby races to my side, tugging on my skirt. His large green eyes sparkle.

"Wow! Auntie Avis you're tummy is huge!"

I laugh and carefully kneel down to pick the boy up. "Yea. Soon you're going to have a little friend to play with." I tell him.

"Woah!" His tiny hands press to my stomach. "Mammy! Mammy! Come feel!"

Leigh walks in with a smile on her face, motherhood has really made her shine. "Hello Ling, Avis… it's great to see you."

Ed and Al walk in arguing about something May yells and they both shut up. They haven't changed at all. Braedan wiggles in my grasp and when I set him on the ground he immediately races to his father.

"Anabelle said she'd be here soon." Al says.

I lift the pot of pasta and water getting ready to drain it. "Hold on hold on! Let me do that." Leigh forces me to set the pot down. "You shouldn't lift heavy things when you're pregnant."

"I told you." Ling murmured into my ear. The baby kicks and I press my hand to my stomach. "Is he kicking?"

"You keep calling him a boy it'll be a girl."

"No way, that's totally a boy in there." Ling says, "That baby kicks you constantly. It has to be a boy."

May races over and presses her hands to my stomach. "Hmm… It's a girl!"

"No way!" Ling yells.

The debate over my baby's gender starts. We end in a tie. Ed, Braedan, and Ling say it's a boy, Leigh, Al, and May say it's a girl, and I say we'll find out soon enough. Anabelle walks in at that moment, carting a basket with food and shakes her head at our arguments. She settles us down and we all move into the living room. Under the table Ling puts his hand on my knee and squeezes it. He's so excited to be a father, he helped raise Braedan. I can't wait to see how he matures, Ed, while he can still be a child, is so much more mature since he found out Leigh was going to have his child.

I sigh and take a drink of water. The baby kicks my bladder and I frown. Leigh and Ed haven't had an easy relationship, Winry was pretty heartbroken when she found out and it made Ed depressed. Still, they're married and raising a child, Leigh told me she wants another one and soon.

"Guess what." Ling whispers in my ear as conversation picks up at the table once again.

"What?" I whisper back.

"I love you."

I smile. "I love you too." He grins and goes back to his food. How did I ever end up with a guy like Ling? I fell for a greedy bastard and married a selfless child.

That night, Ling and I lay in bed side by side. One of his hands rub my stomach back and forth. "Ever think about all the stuff we've been through?" He asks.

"All the time."

"As sad as it makes me… I'm really glad all that happened. I wouldn't have met you… and we wouldn't be having this baby."

"Me too."

"I bet Greed is shaking his head at us."

"I bet he's wondering how _you_ managed to conceive a child." A child.

"Hey~" Ling whines.

I giggle and he holds me close. "I was teasing." "I know." Ling sighs. "It was nice to see everyone."

"Hmmm." I close my eyes.

Ling sighs beside me before we both fall asleep. The baby kicks once or twice. Just before I fall asleep I swear I hear an old, familiar voice say, "Good job kiddo."

.-.

A/N: The end. Don't worry though, I have a small one-shot about Ling/Avis (it's rated M just saying that now). And… I'm writing a short sequel (I'm also warning that it's a little AU). Thanks for everyone who's read the story and who's reviewed! It means a lot to me.


	21. Epilogue 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist but I own Avis, Azalea, and Clover, my friends own the other OCs mentioned. If you notice any spelling, grammar, OOC, anything, please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

A/N: I almost forgot about this, but then I was like "Wait a minute where's…? … I knew I wrote that…" Anyways I found it so. Enjoy. Epilogue part 2

.-.

"Azalea! Ling!" I call, "Supper!" A series of giggles sound from the living room. I shake my head and move a pot of beans onto the table. The patter of little feet sound and arms wrap around my knees.

"Mama!" Azalea shrieks. "Daddy's ticklin' me!"

"Is he now?" I look down at the little black haired baby wrapped around my legs. She peers up at me, she's certainly Ling's child, she has the exact same face shape, not to mention the fact she keeps her eyes closed like her father. The only thing we have in common is our blue eyes, not that many people see them. Ling wanders into the room with a large smile on his face, he's just as mischievous as he ever was. "Go sit down sweetie." I tell my child before she races under the table to her chair. I glare at Ling he's teaching her bad habits.

"What?" Ling leans over and gives me a kiss.

"At least try to be mature." I shake my head.

"Never!" Ling thrusts his fist into the air which his daughter immediately copies. I shake my head and help Azalea with her supper. Ling thanks me for the meal, his daughter copies.

"Azalea, are you excited to see Cousin Braedan and Cousin January again?" Azalea opens her eyes, giving us a rare look to her dark blue eyes, she nods her head, her bangs bounce across her forehead. I smile. "And Auntie Leigh and Uncle Ed?"

"Yea!" She cries. Ed dotes upon Azalea while Ling dotes upon Braeden, and January to be fair. Ling smiles he's excited to see them again. It'll take us a day by train to get from Dublith to Risembool, our baby is sure to fuss about not getting there fast enough.

After supper I clean up and Ling gives his baby girl a bath and puts her to bed. With prune-y hands I stand in the doorway of our babies bedroom and listen as Ling tells her one of his "exciting adventures" little does the girl know the stories are true, from a time long before Ling and I were officially together. Azalea asked one night how Mommy and Daddy met, my husband just smiled and said an old friend introduced us.

With the baby asleep Ling and I curl into our bed. Azalea just turned three, she's so excited to be older, she wants to start going to school, Braedan is at that age now. As much as I want to say how much of a pain she was to raise she really wasn't, she's just a younger female version of Ling. She's harmless.

"I told Azalea the story of Grandpa Greed…" Ling says softly, "I told her how nice he was and how much we loved him… and how he saved our lives. She looked at the ceiling and said 'Grandpa Greed thank you for saving my Daddy and Mommy.'." I hug Ling close to my chest and frown, if only Greed could see Azalea, if only they could meet.

I look up at my black haired man and kissed him hard. Thinking of Greed makes me melancholy. I miss him so bad, still, after all these years.

.-.

The train ride took forever. Azalea frowned and glared and got irritable. She wanted to see her friends right then. Ling had to talk her into behaving. While she listened to the both of us Ling always understood her need to move the best. Leigh waited for us at the train station. Braedan holding one hand and January on her hip. They were certainly Ed and Leigh's children, blond hair and green eyes, and brown hair and gold eyes. The second Azalea saw her friends she squirmed free from Ling's grasp and raced over to them. Braedan and her started talking, my baby puffed up her cheeks and folded her arms over her chest at whatever her friend was telling her.

Ling's hand slides into mine, his wedding band feels cool on my skin. Leigh smiles at us and we all start walking to her house. Ed's at work, doing odd jobs around town. January, the littlest Elric child, toddles after her big brother and 'cousin' as they talk animatedly about something, it seems like yesterday she was cooing and sucking her thumb.

.-.

The children all were laid to bed after a nice bath and us adults sat around the living room. It seems like yesterday we were kids saving the world.

"January's gotten so big." Ling comments as his hands twirl my wedding band around my finger.

"Yea." Ed smiles, proud of his baby girl.

"I wish Azalea was a baby again." Ling whispers.

"You don't have to wish much longer." I murmur. Everyone stares at me. "I think I'm pregnant."

Ling's eyes open and he hugs me tightly. "This is great news!" He grabs my hands and Ed and Leigh give me their congratulations.

.-.

Sure enough I was pregnant and nine months later everyone had gathered at the hospital waiting for the baby to be born. The contractions were getting more frequent and stronger. My hand crushed Ling's as our doctor checked to see how things were going. Everyone else was in the waiting room.

"Alright." The doctor smiles wide at me. "I think the baby's ready to come out."

Azalea was a pain in the ass to give birth to, she didn't want to come out. This child was ten times easier. The sound of cries fills my ears and I squeeze Ling's hand. "You did wonderfully." Ling whispers in my ear as the baby is taken off to have a check up. A nurse rubs a towel across my forehead.

"Mr. and Mrs. Yao?" The doctor asks softly.

"Yes?" Ling asks quickly.

The doctor holds out a little bundle, "She's a healthy little girl." I take my child into my arms and stare down at her, she has a tuff of light blond hair on her head and sucks her thumb gently. Her eyes are closed and when I click my tongue they open and I gasp.

"Doctor!" I gasp.

"There's nothing wrong with her." The doctor says in an even voice, "She's perfectly healthy, her eyes are just…" Two different colors, one blue and one green.

"What are we going to name her?" Ling asks, he brushes the baby's cheek as she gwarbles.

"Clover." I whisper.

"Perfect." Ling kisses our baby's forehead before giving me a kiss.

.-.

Clover shines her beautiful eyes at me before losing herself to giggles. Ling giggles beside me before tickling her toes again. She cries out and flaps her baby arms like a bird. Ling pokes her cheeks and she practically screams with joy.

"You're the cutest baby." Ling tells her. "Yes you are!" Her hands wrap around his pointer finger and she promptly begins to suck on it. Ling giggles before turning up at me. "I may have wanted a boy before Azalea was born but I couldn't be happier with our baby girls."

"You make the best father." I smile.

"You're the most amazing mother." Ling hugs me tightly. Clover giggles between us as we kiss. After everything that's happened, losing all my loved ones, fighting for the survival of the world, I wouldn't change anything. Everyone got their happy ending…


End file.
